Vamps and Gypsies
EP
Vamps and Gypsies stick a knife in the egos of other UK underground rock bands by flaunting a singer who is not only blessed with a great voice, but who is also a stunningly good-looking girl. What then turns the knife for the ultimate impact is the fact that Nikki Jones is not only beautiful and can sing like no-one else on the scene, but that she is also a razor-sharp songwriter.
Her strong and sumptuous, honey-mixed-with-JD voice instantly sets a distinct, spirited vibe for all five tracks on this record. Still, all five vary in subject-matter, mood and approach to songwriting, revealing a versatile band with repertory ranging from stomping rock songs to potential radio hits with the kind of indelible pop appeal that jocks all over the world are constantly looking for with variable results.
The opening track, ‘Dumped for Jesus’, is an explosive payoff to Motley Crue, an immediately catchy tune full of movement and impulsive drive. A flashy, impeccably phrased lead guitar by Stubio Lopez (Nikki’s co-writer who is largely responsible for this track) adds dimension to the melody with a spectacular result, bringing out the tension and the drama at the heart of this song.
The track that follows, ‘Sleaze’, is an attitude-to-the-fore glam metal song filtered through punk, with decisively confident vocals and some great lyrics cunningly blending insight and naivety. It is the lyrics that will prevent an otherwise hugely appealing song from getting into the mainstream airwaves, but the honest choice of words has never hurt a rock song, and in this case it gets the message across perfectly, Nikki clearly getting a kick out of articulating how she feels about a particular type of characters on the rock scene.
‘Mr. Impossibility’ is a riff-centric song rich in pop details and with a smidgen of melancholy in the catchy chorus. It prepares the listener for ‘Running After You’, a very alive and vibrant rock-meets-pop number that would qualify for airplay next to classics like Bon Jovi’s ‘Blood on Blood’ and Bryan Adams’s ‘Summer of ’69’, boasting a crackling hook and a melody full of shrewd pop savvy. The irrepressible chorus makes this track unforgettable, and the hints of regret mixed with impatient drive give it a hauntingly attractive quality.
This track is a sparkling example of the concise, life-affirming songwriting style of 1980s glam that harmonised simple rock’n’roll composition with extraordinarily memorable pop hooks. The backing vocals on this track (a 1980s stereotype that Vamps’n’Gypsies revel in as if they have just discovered it), instantly took me back to the hot summer days in Los Angeles when fuchsia lipstick, black eyeliner, fringed biker jackets and Poison’s ‘Open Up And Say… Ahh!’ were flying off the shelves, and the Callaway Twin-Turbo Corvette was the car everyone aspired to.
Vamps ‘n’ Gypsies, of course, want their own identity as well as continuity, and for them this goal is going to be easy to achieve as their music has tons of unique ideas and findings.
On the whole, this EP is complex and versatile enough to be listened at home on a rainy day or played as a soundtrack to a glam aftershow party or to blast through the speakers of a car doing 90 miles an hour from Guilford to London or from San Diego to LA. Behind it there is a body of history and tradition, but it also shines with revelations and discoveries that are completely up-to-the-minute, making it a modern, fresh, and very exciting record.
Guest article from Alyssa O.
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