Album Reviews

Normally when a band releases a self-titled album, it has a deeper meaning. Like they’re changing their sound or something. Not so with Blood Red Shoes who are still cranking up the volume way the fuck up there with their bluesy take on rock. So no surprises there or it would still have to be how they can make so much ruckus between just the two of them.

On their fourth album, Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell give it their all right from the start with the instrumental “Welcome Home”, which sounds more like a storm than a greeting. It’s loud, in your face and it feels like a mission statement. “This is what you can expect from us and if you don’t like it, there’s the door”. They manage to keep up the intensity with “Everything All At Once” and “An Animal”, two more tracks that come with kickass riffs and even kickass-er choruses. Even when they slow things down a little on “Stranger” and “Cigarettes In The Dark”, the songs still come laden with menace.

Not a band known to keep their emotions bottled up inside, Laura-Mary and Steven spend a lot of time at each other’s throats with Steven having left the band on three different occasions. I can only applaud the fact that they stuck together, because on their new album Blood Red Shoes finally nailed the sound they’ve been striving for since the beginning.