Search - Roy :: Big City Sin & Small Town Redemption

Hardcore gone country

J. Deschner | Washington, DC United States | 01/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sporting members of a couple of the best screamy bands of the last decade (Botch/These Arms Are Snakes and Harkonnen), Roy delivers all the drive and depth I came to expect from them as kids but in a traditional rock and roll flavor. The songs range from country to noisy rock to ballads, but they never disappoint.



Fans of Lucero, the Replacements and maybe even Billy Bragg will dig these guys. One of my friends said "the best Beatles songs not by the Beatles", though I'm not sure I agree. All I know is I own all their albums.



Full disclosure -- I know some of these guys and have been fans of their various projects for a long time. Still, I'm enough of a music snob that I wouldn't write anything if I didn't love the band."

KInda Like a Midwestern Landscape...

J. Deschner | 02/27/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Roy lies somewhere in the grey, money absorbing limbo of memorable, gritty, from-the-heart indie rock ,and utterly forgettable, over produced top-40, mainstream tripe. That's this album's problem. It rises above oodles of most junk that comes out these days, but doesn't manage to stick to your ribs the way it should. Everything is there: Catchy melodies, interesting, passionate writing, but it seems to fall short of everything that has been done like it before. The slower songs, which measure up to more than half of the album, remind me of a less baroque Jets to Brazil. Just imagine the singer with less of Blake's faux-english accent, and the music stripped down, simplified, and you've got Roy's slower selections on this album. I was softly dissapointed. I do look frwd to future projects by ROY though. One that will hopfully jump outta my speakers and grab and shake me, unlike this one which churns and spins and makes all the right moves, but makes little more than good background or driving music."