Friday, 18 December 2015

Sharks - Like a Black Van on a Dark Curve..., album review



Still Biting

An album initially begun in 1976 but put to the side when the band broke up, it was finished in 1995, two members of the original, Chris Spedding on guitar and Snips on vocal, polishing it off. Sharks was initially formed with Andy Fraser as a member, but he left after the first album.

It would appear to be an album flying well beneath the positive reviewing radar, only beeping on the screen for fans, and even then only faintly. I quite like it. Understated to a degree, it has enough inherent class to be genuinely good, opening track Perfect Days being an excellent song, a melodic structure in its descending tones with tight harmonies and Spedding, as one would expect, playing equally tight solos. Fourth Wake Me Up When It’s Time To Dance is quite a funky chug-like blues, Spedding providing a swath of amped slide. This is followed by the fine acoustic slide of White Man.

There is an even funkier rhythm on seventh The First Thing, with Snips singing sassily. Penultimate Blues Rags and Hollers relies on some distancing vocal effects, but is atmospherically cool, and closer The Shadow Knows is a spunky blues, Spedding once again scorching out some slide, Snips matching on soaring vocal.

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