Energy’s Debut LP “Rock Party”
Making an original rock record that is true to the mainstream model without borrowing too much from the genre’s storied past and iconic forerunners is no easy task in 2023, but in Energy’s debut LP Rock Party, the American indie outfit makes it look all too simple from one track to the next. They bring the heavy metal thunder in “And I’m Doing Alright,” velvet vocals and guitar virtuosity in “You Are Too Good to Lose,” pop/rock resilience in “This Part of Town is a No Go,” and all-out melodic mayhem in the title cut, and though they’re not a household name yet, they sport a sound that is as sharp and inviting as any I’ve heard in years.
The vocal harmonies are rich with texture and as bright as a new day’s sunlight in “This Part of Town is a No Go,” “We Dream the Dream,” and “Fight for Your Freedom,” but they never manage to steal all of the spotlight away from the riffs that they adorn. You can tell that the chemistry between the players in this band is one hundred percent natural in every one of these songs, as they seem to play off of each other’s cues seamlessly and without any external assistance from behind the soundboard.
If it’s grade-A guitar tones that you’re looking for this spring, “Spitfire Glory Boy” has got you more than covered for pretty much any occasion that you could fathom. The strings define the character of the music in these tracks, as well as in the stripped-down ballad “We Dream the Dream,” which might be the most poignant song included on Energy’s new record. These cats are adept at conquering grooves of virtually any shape or size in the hot and heavy material here, but in a slow setting, they demonstrate just as much passion and panache as they do in a stormy volume swell – something that we could only hope to see and hear in their commercially-bankrolled contemporaries.
Lyrically, Rock Party is a pretty progressive record. It’s not a concept piece in the traditional sense, but I feel like it has a deeper narrative beneath the surface of its eight well-toned tracks. The guitar-slinging discord that frames the blustery melodies in the vocal track of songs like the record’s namesake and “Cry of a Child” is giving us some context for the story being told in the verses, and best of all, these words never drift into the realm of bombastic camp as they would in a standard progressive rock album.
I’m looking forward to seeing this band live at some point. Everything that I’m hearing in Energy’s first LP tells me that not only were these guys destined to play this material live, but moreover, these heroic harmonies and carnal riff-rocking grooves represent only a fraction of the quaking depth of physicality that this group would be able to dish out on stage. They’ve got a heck of a formula that they’re applying rather brilliantly in this debut, and after they get some more miles under their belt on the road, I have a feeling that their music is going to be a real force to be reckoned with.
Anne Hollister
Anne Hollister
We do music reviews for Independent Artists and Publicists.
