Thursday 18 February 2016

Album: Track Dogs - Serenity Sessions



Track Dogs - Love Me Like You Used To


Info: Named after the maintenance teams that work the NYC subway system Track Dogs are a four piece acoustic act based in Madrid, Spain. Made up of two Irishmen; Garrett Wall (Vocals/Guitar/Ukulele/Piano) & Dave Mooney (Bass/Ukelele/Vocals), Englishman Howard Brown (Trumpet/Vocals/ Percussion) and Cleveland, Ohio native Robbie K Jones (Cajón/Banjo/Vocals). The group are releasing their third album on the 11th of March (pre-release now available on iTunes), Serenity Sessions, with the latest single, 'Love Me Like You Used To' (above) just released in the last few days.

Track Dogs have previously featured on the blog here over the last 12 months, their last E.P., Forever You'll Be and the first single from Serenity Sessions, the barn-storming ear-worm, 'Bon Scott, He Rocked' (a tribute to the late AC / DC frontman) both going down very well with me. Latest single 'Love Me Like You Used To' keeps the momentum going, featuring acclaimed Spanish guitarist 'El Twanguero' who is currently getting rave reviews in L.A.. The track is instantly appealing, with lovely electric country blues riffs that could easily see it sitting on an early Tarantino soundtrack.

It's not all fun and games with Track Dogs though and this can be seen from the opening track of the forthcoming album, 'To The End', lovely trumpet playing give a jazzy tone to a ballad based on friendship which could easily be an introspective. 'So Much Dust' zips from folk to punchy pop stylings and a funky choir breakdown that wouldn't be amiss on a Spiritualized album of all places. With 'Broken Strings' things are stripped bare and it's quite beautiful, really beautiful in fact the more you listen to it, sparse vocals, acoustic guitars, strings and brass once again combine wonderfully, maybe the most 'Irish' of all the tracks on the album, along with 'Orion Sees'.

Track Dogs - Bon Scott, He Rocked

'Don't Waste Time' starts out like The Faces (unsurprisingly as we will see later) and ends up like Madness meets The Tijuana Brass Band (finally, thank you mother!), a hazy feel-good number with soulful vibes, and that's the thing about Track Dogs, they just don't fit into any category easily, talk about straddling multiple genres as if they were all the same. 'The Lights Went Out In Cotos' is like a bluesy chain-gang song, then in comes the tremendous bossa nova percussion, and that's it in a nutshell, Track Dogs are full of surprises, every offering the only type of pleasant sucker punch you can imagine. Serenity Sessions is a truly wonderful album, it's all about giving to the listener and no taking, great musicianship on a plate and a collection of songs that require no effort to enjoy, and then there's that cover to close the album, smiling.


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