Howling Hex XI – Review – amazing

I can contain myself no longer. I admit that I downloaded this album illegally (although I'll obviously buy it when it's out). This album is incredible! It's jazz rock pop punk (and even with a bit of the Beat). This album represents both a coming together of the strands that up to now have made up the Howling Hex and a completely new direction (or multiplicity of directions) for Neil Hagerty's band.

With four songwriters and lead singers, the main departure here is from what always felt like a Hagerty controlled machine. Even if we knew that he was experimenting with different songwriters and musicians, it still felt like a man preaching the word. Now, it's like he was never the man - more just a guy waiting for the other guys to show up so they could kick some ass.

I love all of the tracks but am particularly interested by Everybody's Doing It, Dr Slaughter and the awesome Live Wire. Isn't Live Wire a cover? It sounds like a classic garage rock track. Everybody's Doing It is the boogie-woogie hit of the year with its drum fills, triumphant horns and the sort of chorus you'll one day hear gangs of men singing outside a closing bar. Dr Slaughter is more of a (dare I say it?) Jon Spencer number - but much better executed. A barebones instrumental line (but with the ever present flaring horns), unfinished lyrics and and heavy wah-wah guitar all conspire to make this song more than a toe-tapper. It's a pelvic thruster.

The rest of the album is also great. As I've said to a couple of other fans over the last few days: this feels like it borrows something from Neil Hagerty's days in Pussy Galore, Royal Trux, Weird War, solo and with the Howling Hex - but it's also much more that. The input of other songwriters and singers has given this album a mixed texture that Top 10 bands could only dream of. This is not only the best rock album I've heard in years, it's the best Neil Hagerty album too... 1 out of 1

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