Good Guys — The Social Engagement

It comes in a rather minimal and black sleeve, the debut of New Orleans-based band Good Guys. The Social Engagement is far from dark or black, their energetic rock is almost the opposite, actually.

One band springs to mind first, listening to the 45 minutes presented, and that's Faith No More. They're far from a ripoff, but they share an energy and the adventurous approach to rock music. Too pop to be metal, or something. My first impression was that the vocals don't seem very expressive, especially in the first song (Ruptura) which is one of the loudest on the album. Over the course of the album, which uses all kinds of influences from pop, surf and samba without ever becoming a 'genre-hopper', it turns out to be quite OK. Another thing that's shared with Faith No More is that there's something bitter buried under the catchy (In The Dark) songwriting.

Utterly entertaining, The Social Engagement sounds like it's even more fun when it's blasted from stage. Until then this is just a wonderful pop/rock record (and with the different meanings of 'pop' in America and Europe in mind: I mean pop as in Beach rather than Backstreet Boys). And definitely a lot more palatable than a lot of things we tend cover in musique[machine]. Good guys, good music.