Beauvoir Free American Trash
On the 24th of June 1995 Crown Of Thorns opened up a bill at Wembley Stadium alongside Thunder,Van Halen(with Sammy Hagar) and headliners Bon Jovi.
With their simply fantastic debut album released in 1994 chock full of delicious hooks and melodic rock to die for,the world was their oyster except for the advent of that phenomenon that killed off many a band grunge!!
Moving forward 20 years and Frontiers Music Srl release in Europe on the 5th of June and North America on the 9th American Trash,a new venture between the 2 Crown Of Thorns figure heads Jean Beauvoir and Micki Free.
Ex Plastmatics frontman Beauvior and Free formerly of Shalamar have produced an album that feels like the last 20 years never happened.Their is a magic produced when these 2 get together and the only shame is that it has taken so long to get them back in a studio together.
From the Free's opening big dirty riff on first single Angels Cry and Beauvoir's vocal gymnastics on a song that could have come from the debut album.Keyboards add a real depth to the feel and a lengthy guitar solo from Free is the cherry on top.
Morning After has a huge guitar riff and a slight drop in pace with Beauvoir really hanging onto notes as the song then dips into an acoustic plucked riff with keyboard swathes an added bonus.Back up to the main riff with some nice added guitar melodies from Free.The song has real feel good groove to it and the the slow melodic guitar solo fits the ambience so well and an extended guitar solo in the outro finishes the song to perfection.
The title track starts on a guitar riff and bass drum intro with plenty of yeah yeahs in the vocal before the song develops into a real swagger led mid paced rocker with again keyboard splashes a nice touch.Free again is happy to add guitar flourishes where he deems fit.
Whiplash and Shotgun To The Heart both are rockers all guitar riff and building to the choruses.The former has a great stop start riff that stops at the chorus while the latter is a song begging to be played live.A driving drum rhythm and chugging guitar riff and a slightly harder edged vocal in the verse bring a different touch to proceedings.A real classic guitar solo from free where you can imagine him centre stage leaning back as his fingers move ever faster.
Just Breathe and Never Give Up are the 2 ballads on the album.Beauvoir shows the full range on his vocals with a display of power and control and passion that brings a smile to my face.Free burns up a couple of perfect ballad guitar solo's just to top it off.
4 rockers finish off the album all keeping the quality high.Cold Dark December has real attitude in the verse both musically and vocally which then goes down a notch on a chorus with real melody.Free excels both in the guitar solo and also the extended melody part after the first chorus.It's Never Too Late builds to a huge multi layered chorus and has another Free guitar riff from the top draw,She's A KO has a pop feel to the chorus and There's No Starting Over is a perfect album closer with a big guitar riff and multi layered chorus.
Anyone who was a Crown Of Thorns fan this is a cd not to be missed but anyone with a love of melodic rock played with a real swagger and attitude pick this one up.
Let's hope this the first of many albums the second time around from two musicians who share a real magic together and it would just be wrong not to share that magic with all of us.
