Rooster - Rooster > Reviews > An Album to Crow About

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Some very decent pop - rock tracks
Disadvantages:	The ballads need a little more work

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I hate to say it, but television advertising does work. I hadn't knowingly heard of Rooster or anything by them until I saw an advert for their eponymous debut album. The snippets of songs they played made it sound like the kind of thing I would enjoy, however, and with some Amazon vouchers to spare, it seemed worth a chance.

When the album arrived, the sticker on the front filled with effusive praise from all the music magazines seemed only to strengthen by feeling that I'd made the correct choice. But you should no sooner judge a CD by the critics' reviews than you should judge a book by the cover. After all, the critics have been known to get it horribly wrong in the past, recommending music that no ordinary person would listen to. The only way for me to know for sure if I'd made a wise choice was to give the album a listen.

My first taste of Rooster is the blues tinged pop-rock intro to "Joyride". There's a distinct boy band feel to the vocals, which have the same rough edge as Charlie's from Busted, but the underlying music has more of a rock influence than their music did. There's still a pop influence, but this is definitely pop-rock, a step on from Busted, although not quite reaching proper rock music.

The intro to "Come Get Some" has a slightly funkier edge to it and it has more of a dance pop beat to it. It's more of a pop influenced song than "Joyride", although it's certainly heavy pop as opposed to the normal lightweight pop sound. The not-quite-rapping vocal delivery and the slightly funk tinged beat make this sound like the kind of thing Five used to do.

The riff that opens "Standing In Line" could have been borrowed from Bad Company or Free, although the rest of the song certainly isn't up to those standards. It's really a pop edged blues-rock song, which the vocals don't allow to quite live up to the standards of the guitar riff. This is possibly what Free might have sounded like with Charlie from Busted on vocals. Good, but not quite as good as they could be.

Every rock band, or wannabe rock band, has to have a big ballad. "Staring At The Sun" is Rooster's first attempt at one and it's clear that ballads aren't their strength. It's very similar in style to any rock ballad you could hear and all the big 1980s rock ballad style guitar solos can't disguise that this is really little more than a pop song with guitars. The vocals again sound a bit too much like Busted for this to be taken seriously as a proper rock song.

Another wannabe rock band cliché is up next, with the acoustic ballad "To Die For". Although it does liven up a little bit later on, it's very much a fairly derivative pop ballad and without the rock backing, Rooster sound even more like a standard boy band.

Fortunately, they're back on more familiar territory with "You're So Right For Me". Indeed, this time around they tend more towards the rock end of the spectrum than ever before. There's a rougher edge to the vocals and a slightly funkier sound to the music. The combination reminds me a little of a band called It's Alive, who sadly didn't last long. But this is very typical of 1980s style stadium rock, even down to the down tempo part towards the end.

It was the title to "Platinum Blind" that first caught my eye, but it's proved to be my favourite track on the album. The almost rapped vocals in the chorus remind me of Def Leppard's "Slang", and the harmonies over the vocals are reminiscent of their work as well. Like the previous track, this is a song born of the 1980's soft rock scene. It might be a little clichéd, but it's none the less appealing for it.

Rooster decide to have another stab at the ballads with "Deep And Meaningless". Sadly, they're not really any more successful this time around either. This time it's piano led, rather than the acoustic guitar on "To Die For", but they sound a lot better when they're rocking out. There are moments where they do edge towards the 1980s stadium rock style, but for the most part this is just insipid and the harmonies make them sound more like Boyzone or Westlife than Def Leppard with this musical backing.

"On The Road" is very much along the same lines as "You're So Right For Me". There's a funk to the music and a rasp to the vocals and it's edging well into pop rock territory again. There are moments where it sounds a little like Free, others where they could almost be Thunder, but that the vocals aren't quite good enough. Once again with this track, Rooster prove that they're at their best when they're rocking out.

Another Free influenced bluesy guitar riff opens "She Don't Make Me Feel". The vocals are a little thin in some points, but this is old style pop-rock music of the highest order. It's not the instant classic song it could be, but it's certainly a darned good effort and I keep expecting Paul Rodger's voice to come in after every break.

There's still time for one last ballad and "Angels Calling" is it. It's again largely acoustic, but they pick up the volume a little more in the chorus, so saving it from descending into the realms of the pop ballad as with some of their earlier efforts. It's not got the impact of the 1980s stadium rock ballads, but compared to their earlier attempts, it's a step in the right direction.

The album closes on "Drag The Sunrise Down", another all out rocker. Well, I think that's the general idea, anyway. A promising rock intro fades away into a thin vocal which lets the song down even more than on "She Don't Make Me Feel", as the rock influence is more apparent on this track. It's not a bad pop-rock song, but it's not one of their best and it's a slightly lacklustre end to a decent album.

Although it seems to be damning Rooster with faint praise, this album proves them to be the ideal successors to Busted's heavy pop crown, even more so than McFly. This may seem slightly ridiculous, as Rooster have a lot more of a rock edge than Busted, but that was the direction that the members of Busted wanted their music to be going in anyway. Rooster are the band that Busted always wanted to be.

If you like your rock music to have a pop edge, or your pop music to be loud and involve guitars, Rooster are definitely the band for you. This is good quality pop music with a rock edge that fans of Busted and McFly will appreciate and fans of rock music might not sneer at too much. There are moments that hark back to the days of the 1970s and Free and others that remind me of the stadium rock era of the 1980s. No other boy band, for that is what Rooster are for now, can claim that.

This is a very decent pop-rock album that can be had for as little as £8.75 from CD Wow, £7.50 from the Amazon Marketplace and £1.50 from eBay. For your money, you get 43 minutes and 12 tracks of decent music. It's not perfect, by any means, as they need to work on getting more of an edge to their ballads and the vocals could be better. But it's a very good start, better than many and I suspect that after a year or two of touring in support of this album, their second will be even better.

If there is any justice, Rooster will go on to be as big as both their predecessors, Busted and McFly have become. This is a chance to get in at the beginning of what may yet be something big. Buy now, and crow about it later.