IV Thieves - If We Can't Escape My Pretty (CD Review)

If there's any justice in the rock and roll world, the name IV Thieves will be on the tip of every rocker's tongue in the coming months. How good is If We Can't Escape My Pretty the new cd by IV Thieves? Well, lets just do this little exercise. Make a list of the most popular and most influential British rock and roll bands. Start with The Beatles, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Stone Roses, and Oasis. Add in some of your own personal favorites. Now, at the end of that list, add the band IV Thieves. IV Thieves were originally known as Nic Armstrong and The Thieves. However, as they spent more time as a band and developed more chemistry, they decided to change their name to the IV Thieves to reflect the democratic nature of this emerging band. The writing credits for each song on If We Can't Escape My Pretty are Nic Armstrong/Shane Lawlor/Glynn Wedgewood and each of these talented musicians takes a turn as the lead vocalist. With three distinct song writers working in one band, the IV Thieves are able to display a wide range of musical styles. Whether they're playing rockers, rompers, stompers, or sweet sixties pop, the result is always the same: infectious, honest to goodness rock and roll. The opening track, "You Can't Love What You Don't Understand," is a rocker that features cascading guitar lines and a soaring chorus played over the pulsing rhythms of bassist Shane Lawlor and drummer Jonny Aitken. "Take This Heart" is one of the rompers. Big guitars, big beats, and loud, loud, loud is the plan of attack. Meanwhile, "A Day Is A Downer" showcases IV Thieves poppier side with a simple chorus, flawless harmonies, and hooks aplenty. Finally, on a song like "Die In Love," the IV Thieves take all of these diverging influences and craft a song uniquely their own. This is the perfect marraige between simple pop structures and guitar rockingness. On an album where there are so many different styles and different voices there's always the danger of sounding like genre hoppers. Refreshingly, IV Thieves are able to take this multitude of elements and craft something distinctive and new. The blues numbers stop being blues numbers, the rockers are no longer rockers, and the pop songs are not merely pop songs: they are all IV Thieves songs. The IV Thieves Rock, Roll, Romp, Stomp, and Pop to a 9 out of 10 on the Rockometer IV Thieves - You Can't Love What You Don't Understand.mp3 IV Thieves - The Day Is a Downer.mp3 If We Can't Escape My Pretty will be released October 17th on New West Records. IV Thieves on Myspace