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The Chronics | Make You Move

Yet another non-experimental, unoriginal, shallow masterpiece.
CD, Bad Afro/Suburban

Tekst: Martÿn ter Haar

Publicatiedatum: 04 april 2002

'Soulshaker', The Chronics' 2000 debut, was a masterpiece, the best album of the year. OK, maybe not if you think that such things as experimentation, originality, and deep emotions are requirements for a masterpiece, but that's all just high-brow, artsy-fartsy bullshit anyway. An album filled with tracks that combine the best of The Rolling Stones and The Sonics is a masterpiece. After all, 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' is considered one of the greatest records of all time, although everybody skips that sitar hippie shit George Harrison wrote. And 'Soulshaker' was all killer, no filler: All 13 tracks were at least good, most of them great.

So now the second album 'Make You Move' is there, and the question is whether The Chronics can avoid the infamous second album slump. Not entirely. There are only eleven tracks on 'Make You Move', and of those 'Honey Blue' and 'Rewind' are just so-so. The other nine are just as good as the material on 'Soulshaker' though, so 'Make You Move' will still definitely show up in my top of 2002, but probably not at first place.

Again, the secret that makes The Chronics stand out between all those other Scandinavian bands is the less-is-more approach that results in ultra-tight songs, spiced up with female background vocals, percussion and keyboard, and Magnus Rudolfsson's clearly-sung catchy lyrics to give them just that extra edge. But, as the title suggests, the new album is even more dancefloor-oriented than 'Soulshaker'. The title track, 'Hot Blood Boy' with Mats Westin's great drum fills, and the very fast 'Soulshaker' (in the best Led Zeppelin tradition, the song appears on the album after the album that was named after it) are guaranteed floor-fillers. And then there's the atmospheric surf guitar-driven 'Tomorrow's News', the instant sing-along 'Don't Keep Me In Line'... Ah, forget it. 'Make You Move' is yet another non-experimental, unoriginal, shallow masterpiece.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/the-chronics/make-you-move/1437/
Meer The Chronics op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/the-chronics