Album Review - The Parlor Mob

The Parlor Mob

“And You Were a Crow"

2008 Roadrunner Records

Album Grade: A+

Career GPA: 4.0

By: Brent Owen

I pray that The Parlor Mob will take over the world. I pray that they will storm mainstream radio and stage a revolution, the likes of which we haven’t seen since “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. I pray that they will be the return of true Rock N’ Roll to the public consciousness. And I pray that every eye that reads this will go buy a copy of The Parlor Mob's album.

After hearing this record it is impossible to spell "Classic Rock Revival" without mentioning The Parlor Mob. This is a band best described as if the members of Led Zeppelin were in their early to mid-twenties and just now arriving to the current ebb tide of authentic blues based rock – then And You Were A Crow is the album that they would have recorded.

This is truly the band that rock purists have been waiting for. This is a band that embraces their influences without trying to mimic them. They have a taught rhythm section and a chemistry with one another that just radiates through the stereo speakers. The give and take between both very capable guitarists really builds a layered complexity that we haven’t heard on the radio in decades. And Mark Melicia’s voice sounds like a blend of Robert Plant, Perry Farrell, and Zach De La Rocha without all of the posturing of those seasoned vets.

From the first note of this debut album, to the very last; this is an absolutely flawless album. And if the band isn’t good enough, Producer Jacquine King perfectly captures the raw, unbridled nature of a band that attacks sound they way that these guys do. Each song sounds clean enough to have been recorded in a fancy studio – but just muddy enough that it might be the first and only take they recorded.

The explosive opening track “Hard Times” bleeds with leftover riffs straight from the Jimmy Page handbook. The song writing here palpable – they don’t just rock these guys have something to say as well – there is a tension that makes you feel like the speakers are always on the verge of blowing out. “Tide of Tears” is an eight minute epic ballad with several teasing guitar solos that lead to a giant two and a half minute solo toward the end. Sometimes the guitar work on this song echoes that of Slash on “November Rain” without being derivative. And “Bullet” is a big song that from the beginning feels like it’s been swirling out of the barrel of the gun that he's singing about. You can almost hear the blood in Mark Melicia’s voice when he screeches, moans, and sings (all at the same time) “You just can’t take the bullet out the gun.”

Previous Albums:
None