Get Selfied – Stop Stop
Review by; Jon Revill
‘Get Selfied’ is the fourth album from Barcelona glam/sleaze rockers Stop Stop.
I had never heard of Stop Stop prior to listening to their latest twelve track offering and the first thing that struck me was the familiarity of singer/bassist Jacob A.M’s voice. It took me a few tracks to pinpoint who Jacob reminds me of and I finally settled on the opinion that his voice is a hybrid of Love/Hate’s Jizzy Pearl and Miljenko Matijevic of Steelheart, who is probably better known as Mark Wahlberg’s singing voice in the 2001 movie Rock Star. It’s a strong combination for fans of 80’s era sleaze rock.
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The album kicks off with ‘Renegade’, a track which is solid enough but lacks anything to raise it above filler material. The Motley Crue-esque rhythm section is a good fit as are the aforementioned strong vocals but the song suffers from a sub-standard mid-80’s vibe and is quite repetitive and patchy.
However, my disappointment did not last long, as the band follows the opener with the catchy as hell ‘The Last Call’. It’s got a good beat and has a great AC/DC like feel to it especially by way of the call-back style chorus and is a very strong track with the only slight criticisms being the confusing outro and that the guitar could do with being higher in the mix. Other than that it’s a great track and well worth a listen.
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‘Bite the Bullet’ is another solid track with an obvious influence from Skid Row but the party really starts with ‘On the Redline’ with its Motley Crue style intro, inclusive of screeching tyre SFX, chugging melody and mid song spoken word breakdown that echoes Diamond Dave Lee Roth himself. With the party in full swing Stop Stop don’t let up and follow with ‘Living A Lie’ which I feel is the best and strongest song on the entire album. It’s got a cracking beat, again echoes Skid Row at their sleazy best, and put simply just rocks! Just beef up the backing vocals boys and you’ve got a winner there no doubt about it.
The album slows down momentarily to allow the obligatory power ballad to make its entrance. ‘You Drive Me Loco’ is a brilliant effort from the band from which positive comparisons to Cinderella are easily made. The bluesy riff complements the vocals really well and it is a definite ‘lighters in the air’ moment and one of the highlights of the album.
‘Keyboard Warrior’ is a tongue in cheek, but cutting all the same, pot shot at social media trolls (and maybe online album reviewers…?). The song is quite run of the mill but has a great sing-along melody and a heavy beat that saves it from ‘filler’ status. The same however can’t be said for ‘Whiner Doll’ with its punk rock stylings ala New York Dolls. This song is definite filler and even the excellent soaring guitar solo can’t save it.
The remainder of the album is rounded out with four songs; ‘Son Of A Beast’, ‘Have It’, ‘Trending Topic’ and ‘You’re Rock & Roll’. The first of this batch sounds like something Lordi would use to pad out one of their weaker albums, the bluesy jam section in the middle just seems out of place and the less said about the “666” refrain the better I feel. Following this song with ‘Have It’ put me in fear that the remainder of the album was going to be all filler no killer. It’s a perfectly serviceable track but is very much reminiscent of Warrant and, let’s face it, Warrant only did two good songs.
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Luckily the quality soars back up with ‘Trending Topic’ which is another commentary on the perils of social media trends and today’s “Insta-Celebrities”. With the catchy “Facebook, Facebook on the wall….” hook and made-for-arena handclaps I really enjoyed this track. Listener warning; this isn’t one to listen to with Granny as Jacob certainly likes to rhyme ‘topic’ with ‘dick’ and I don’t mean Mr Whittington and his cat…..
‘You’re Rock & Roll’ is a good album closer with a Darkness tinged intro that wears its Guns ‘N’ Roses influence on its (tattoo) sleeve.
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All in all I enjoyed my introduction to Stop Stop and, although the album is a bit patchy in places, the guys in the band can really play and Jacob A.M’s vocals are right up there with the best sleaze rock singers around. The band are on tour now with dates in the UK scattered between now and November and I for one will certainly be checking them out before then. Check out the band’s tour dates at https://www.stopstoptheband.com/tour
3/5 stars
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Stop Stop are;
Jacob - vocals/bass
Vega - guitar
Danny - drums
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https://www.stopstoptheband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stopstopofficial
https://www.instagram.com/stopstopofficial/
https://www.youtube.com/user/StopStopTheBand
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