Colour Revolt - Beg and Curse Album Review

Colour Revolt
Plunder, Beg and Curse
Fat Possum
Album Review

Released on the ultra-cool label that saw the Black Keys, RL Burnside and Hayden released, Plunder, Beg and Curse is the debut album release from Oxford, Mississippi band, Colour Revolt. And while this isn't blues, it is a bluesy mix of the finest indie and rock - think Queens of the Stone Age (especially Mark Lanegan QoTSA) mixed with Pavement. Even some early Cream, perhaps. There are guitars crashing about all over the place when the mood sets in, but they take their time to do so, building dynamically - adding edge and power rather than riffs.

If other genre-bending bands like The Walkmen or Modest Mouse float your boat, Colour Revolt (they use the 'English English' spelling of 'colour', following an idea in Edwin Abbott's 19th Century Flatland) are a nailed-on certainty. Opener Naked & Red, released as a free mp3, is the closest to QoTSA, but if it hooks you, the rest of the album is just as strong, even if it is way less obvious - this is an album that takes time to get to know you, like an old city rather than a faux Disneyland recreation. It is dark, in various shades, gothic, grungey and simply wonderful.

4.5/5

Mike Rea