Review by T.A. Hopkins

Artist: JETSET ROYALS
Album: “Jetset Royals”
Label: LIONS PRIDE MUSIC
Release Date, USA: May 5, 2017
Release Date, Europe: June 30, 2017

Tracklist:
01. Wearing It Out
02. Ship Of Fools
03. Ballad Of A Dead Man
04. Wicked
05. The Cost
06. Like I’m Dying
07. Long Way Out
08. Take This Pain
09. Sunday Morning
10. All I’ve Got
11. Devil Cried Out
12. Plastic Peace

I have been eagerly anticipating the next phase of Keith Slack’s musical journey. After excitedly chancing upon MOTHER ROAD’s “Drive” album back in 2014, then delving into his past work with MUDPIE, STEELHOUSE LANE, MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, and his 2007 solo album, “Bent, Not Broken”, I was so impressed by his vocal style, musical versatility and songwriting. In the last couple of years, Keith’s life has taken some real twists and turns. Much of it has translated into a killer collection of songs on his latest effort with guitarist Gerard Garcia and bassist Micah Denzlinger as JETSET ROYALS.

Keith is a seasoned pro at drums and vocals as well as guitar, bass, and probably a few more instruments. I’m going to have to ask him about that. But he’s not one to want to run the whole show alone. As with Keith’s solo album, Gerard Garcia (ULTRAPULL, BRAND NAME COLLISION) got on board to lend his skills, talents, and to add yet another layer of color to the mix. The guys sound like nary a day has passed since then, as if they simply picked up where they left off and kept the groove going.

The band’s debut album is a heavy alternative/classic (and more) rock trip, filling up the fuel tank in south Texas and gunning on all four barrels. It’s kinda like Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and Bad Company all got together for beer, poker, and some awesome improv, and maybe Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers stopped in to play a few rounds. Musically, the band is aggressive and in your face from the get-go with songs like ‘Wearing It Out’, ‘Ship Of Fools’, and ‘Wicked’. But don’t box them up into a neat little niche, because they’ve got places to go!

A natural at writing great melodies with irresistible hooks, interwoven with genuine blood-and guts emotion, Slack delivers distinctive, dynamic, paced and powerful vocals, and his lyrics get a little abstract at times. Or maybe not: heavy, observant, and irreverent, there’s something about those lyrics that cause the listener to think more deeply and feel a camaraderie—this man gets it. That darkness, that cynicism, frustration, pain, and thumbing one’s nose at the establishment type stuff, emotions coming to a head and vented (in a more acceptable and legal way) through Rock & Roll. Garcia and Denzlinger complement his vision wonderfully, providing the grit, the sparkle, and the flow to keep this machine in top form.

‘Ballad Of A Dead Man’ could be related to in a few different ways, especially considering the recent passing of another of our generation’s musical icons. This is the track that stays in my head on a continuous loop and refuses to leave, with no complaint from me. It’s my favorite. The middle of the album gets perceptibly more autobiographic without definitive details or names. ‘The Cost’ goes from faint to frenetic, taking the listener along for the ride. They bring it down for the introspective ‘Like I’m Dying’, and ‘Long Way Out’, despite the lyrical suggestion of being in too deep, is an instant classic, its southern flair, slide guitar and golden background harmonies making it a perfect tune during a long drive on a summer day. I can almost hear Keith sneering in ‘Take This Pain’. He makes his point! ‘Sunday Morning Rain’ evolves layer by layer, from just a man and his guitar to the full Monty. ‘All I’ve Got’ has a great Bad Company classic-rock feel. All are stark contrasts to each other musically, and yet the flow of the album is never disrupted. A stiff warning is given in steel-toed, shit-kicking, spur-laden dusty boots in ‘Devil Cried Out’, and then the band goes 180 on the funky, Zeppelin-esque ‘Plastic Peace’, a hell of a way to close out the album.

I’ve spun this album for a few friends, one of whom remarked, “It sounds like they’re all over the place!” True, just about all of the songs on this one change gears considerably. But Keith did say he was a man unafraid to paint with more than one color, and that’s evident. And I DIG IT. I really do. I think it’s important for a band to explore and experiment, yet maintain a musical identity without getting stale. See where you can take a song. Stretch its corners and boundaries a little. There are no hard fast rules. This way of putting a song together was successfully done often by bands like Queen, Styx, Paul McCartney and Wings, Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman, and others in the ’70s, and it made for a real listening experience, the kind in which one could (and should) drop everything else, sit down, and devote his or her full attention to nothing else but the music (organic enhancement was optional). Even still, JETSET ROYALS’ debut is a quick road (mind) trip; the album, engineered by Dave Donnelly at DNA Mastering, moves along at a fairly fast pace and clocks in at just under 38 minutes. And I’ve been enjoying every one of them!

Bottom line, I highly recommend JETSET ROYALS as a Rock & Roll album for the masses.

Band Members:
Keith Slack: Vocals, Drums
Gerard Garcia: Guitars
Micah Denzlinger: Bass Guitar

JETSET ROYALS is available from several merchants, including Amazon, Target, and CD Baby. But since you’re already online, jump on over to their website at http://www.jetsetroyals.com or visit their page at https://www.facebook.com/jetsetroyals .