Sligo’s Oddsocks Revival are a much different animal from the rock’n’roll revivalists they’re being touted as – just in case you’re expecting Dion and The Belmonts or Jerry Lee Lewis meets The Penguins. Tracks like the funkified opener ‘How You Gonna Get It Done’ owe more to macho seventies boogie-rawk than fifties rock’n’roll. Elsewhere ‘I’m Just Playin’ has fruity harmonies and hilarious, if unintentional, knuckle-dragger lyrics in a song that has hints of the Average White Band and Manassas. The twin lead guitars on ‘Take A Little Ride’ are borrowed directly from Lizzy, and the ghosts of Robbo and Scott also infuse ‘Hangin’ Tough’. ‘Good Times’ is heavenly heavy, like Zeppelin here and there, but the ‘Socks really turn it on for the instrumental ‘… Still Playin’. ‘Chasin’ The Dolla’, decked out in Crosby, Still and Nash harmonies, suggests they might have much to offer the US market, as do references in the lyrics to “hoochie coo” and “hos” and cadillacs – hardly part of Sligo patois. In fact the lyrics are their main weakness.
Oddsocks Revival make playing music, and listening to it, more like fun than a mission statement. But since all four are ace musicians and impressive singers, it’s a pity they’ve opted to use such obvious talents to revisit the past, rather than giving us something fully of their own. Maybe next time?