Album review: THE SWEET – New York Groove Plus

March 15th, 2015 by jason

Angel Air [Release date 06.04.15] www.angelair.co.uk

This is a full release of the 2012 album previously available directly from the band and this version adds three bonus songs. The current line-up of the Sweet consists of original member guitarist Andy Scott joined by Pete Lincoln (vocals/bass), Tony O’Hora (guitar/keys/vocals) and Bruce Bisland (drums/vocals).

The choice of covers has a loose New York theme with the title track pretty faithful to the original by 70′s band Hello (the song was written by Russ Ballard). However the real treats are the more ‘off the wall’ choices like Dead Or Alive’s ‘You Spin Me Right Round (Like A Record)’. The Sweet slow it down with a chugging guitar riff and their high end harmony vocals suit this song down to the ground. The other modern cover is ‘Gold On The Ceiling’ by the Black Keys, again this works well and sounds like a Sweet song!

Drummer Bruce Bisland has fun on the Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ (listen out for the brief snatch of the Sweet’s ‘Ballroom Blitz’), whilst not to be outdone Andy Scott puts in a sterling performance on ‘Sweet Jane’. This was originally recorded by the Velvet Underground but actually sounds like a long lost 70’s Sweet tune! The original name of this album was ‘New York Connection’, which is an old Sweet B-side and is included on here.

The three bonus songs are a live version of ‘You Spin Me Right Round (Like A Record)’ recorded live at Sweden Rock 2013. Shows that the songs on this covers album can work well in the live setting as well. There is an acoustic version of ‘New York Groove’, which although good seems to lose a bit of the ‘oomph’ of the electric version and finally a remix of ‘It’s All Moving Faster’.

Good fun and all the songs have the Sweet treatment which works well in most cases. Fans will like this for the choice of covers and it may even win them a few new fans for the more mainstream tunes they have given the Sweet treatment to. ****

Review by Jason Ritchie

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REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

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09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
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