AUDIO CD OF THE MONTH
"The Devil Makes Work ..."
by The Idle Hands
[Audio CD for the month of February 2001]

REVIEW by Andy “Wolf” Mott

….The album opens in blistering fashion, with a full-on "wah-wah" attack from Dave Robinson, introducing my favourite track on the album, "Closer To The Floor". Phil Allen impresses immediately with his powerful vocals, as he continues to do throughout the album. Easily the best I've ever heard him, the blues obviously suits his still heavily Coverdale-esque vocal style. The rest of the band don't let the side down either.

It's a few years since I've heard Robbo play, and it seems that he just gets better, again seemingly well suited to the blues. Jamie Burns and Simon Evans; the engine room of the band, thankfully don't try to over impress, and stick rigidly to what rhythm sections were born to do, and they do it very well. Every song on the album, even the slower ones, fairly power along without the loss of any momentum as Robbo executes yet another passionate "slide" or "wah-wah" guitar solo.

A good variation of tempo, and differing styles of blues, ranging from Stevie Ray Vaughan influences to early David Coverdale, post Deep Purple, pre-Whitesnake period, help keep the album interesting, entertaining, and unbelievably fresh sounding for the blues. Other stand out tracks for me are, "The Colour Of Love" ... the very tongue-in-cheek "Red Snapper" ... the pseudo-swing Tex-Mex shuffle of "Crazy", “Everyday”... and last but not least ... "The Devil Makes Work", in which Phil does a passable Dave Lee Roth; Vaudeville routine in the closing bars, which still makes me laugh every time I hear it.

To be fair, there isn't a bad song .. and I can't see any blues fan disliking this album ...
... well, except for the blues purist league who will tell you that "It just ain't the blues" if you can't slit your wrists to it; no danger of wrist-slittin' here, thank God.

So, when's the next album due, lads…?