Album review : WILDSTREET IV

Golden Robot Records [Release date 26.04.24]

US band, Wildstreet, took note of music’s direction of travel (ie there’s no money in standing still) some years ago and have toured incessantly ever since… frequent appearances at SXSW & M3 Rock Festival, plus 5 consecutive years at Rocklahoma. And relentless intercontinental touring. Today Europe, tomorrow the world.

If you’ve got the stamina for that, it’s a win/win. You earn a bit of money and you discover which songs work best, refining and reshaping your material with each new performance.

Musically, they’ve gone some way to resurrecting the dark side of Glam Rock that took form on the USA’s Sunset Strip in the eighties.

Clearly dressed by the stylist who looked after Nikki Sixx and the Backyard Babies, the band are obviously big on image.

And that image translates to the band’s sound. Listening to ‘Heroes’, and ‘Sick To Death’, Wildstreet IV’s opening tracks, the undeniable heaviness of their live sound has percolated down into the studio.

It sounds immense, and It’s almost impossible to peel back the layers. Even if you wanted to.

‘Won’t Be Apart’ and ‘Say Goodbye’ especially provide full on sonic engagement. Both are ballads, one, surpisingly, Country Rock flavoured, and the other of the heartstring tugging type that scored big for Poison in the eighties.
Elsewhere, a couple of tracks fail to make a lasting mark, their thin melodies unable to support the heavyweight production.

Wildstreet IV is shorter than traditional albums, but with 7 tracks, longer than an EP. It follows the band’s multi streaming (6 million on Spotify) Wildstreet III (2021). If nothing else, proving they can count. ***

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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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)