the knockouts among the vultures

Released: 05 March 2010 Label: Diamond Prim

The Knockouts are a Swedish threesome with a refreshing punk/rockabilly sound with plenty of energy and a lively approach to their music. They’ve been around since 1996, so they’ve had the opportunity to mature their sound and their approach.

The overall feel of the album is one of high energy rockabilly with a bit of a punk attitude, and a passing nod to Irish jig time folk music. See this lot play live, and I suspect there will be a lot of bouncing around, jumping up and down and lakes of sweat to wade through on your way out.

My major criticism of this album is that it’s all high energy, encouraging jumping about like a nutter, and generally having a sweaty old time, which is good, but there’s little variation of pace, which means it can start to sound a bit samey.

The only song on this album that doesn’t quite work for me is The Chimneys of Chemnitz, which I just find irritating, whereas Ever Been Hurt has a distinctly early rock’n’roll feel to it, and other tracks are more like Greenday or the Stray Cats. Rotten and Obsessed stands out with it’s sassy jazz type sound. I was instantly reminded of the Disney song from the Aristocats, Everybody wants to be a Cat, even though it’s not really like it once the song is underway. Here’s a Song is a classic drinking song to be performed at the end of a gig and so is, appropriately, at the end of the album.

For a three piece band, they make it work hard, keeping it simple, but staying fast and precise. I could see where fans of bands like Flogging Molly would like this; they have a similar energy and ‘in your face’ approach, and the sounds aren’t too dissimilar either.

by Alan Thomson