Album review: DARKTOWN JUBILEE – The World, the Flesh & the Devil

Parade Recordings www.darktownjubilee.com

Manchester based Darktown Jubilee release their debut album, an album that recalls many other bands, although with vocalist David Boardman they retain their own sound.

The album has a good mix of tempos with a few nailed on arena anthems including opener ‘Breakdown’. With its crashing drums and cymbals plus distinct power chords this could be Simple Minds by way of Coldplay. The latter come to mind as the band cleverly add piano, synths and samples to the songs and often these effects only come to light with repeated listens. ‘Stay’ could be the Stereophonics, the Gaslight Anthem and the glorious Aeon Spoke (they maybe not a houshold name but they have a similar sound to this band) all mixed into one. Boardman shows off his gentler vocal side on the slower ‘The Great Escape’, a song that bizarrely reminded me of ‘Seasons End’ era Marillion!

If the album has one drawback is that it needs another big arena anthem, but hey the songs overall are pretty damn fine and not one overstays its welcome. This sort of music will never be loved by the music critics in national newspapers and the NME but the band will be loved by many if they can get their music heard.

Darktown Jubilee have set themselves a high standard on this debut album and it will be interesting to see how they progress from here.

****

Jason Ritchie

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)