Pearl Handled Revolver return for another serving of dark and enigmatic rock and roll on Tales You Lose.
Release Date: 18th April 2025
Label: EDJ Records
Format: digital / CD
Across a count of five self-produced studio albums, two live albums, and four EPs, Pearl Handled Revolver has crafted a dizzying blend of heavy rock, blues, and prog, with hints of jazz to their sound. Maybe it’s all just rock and roll, but we like it.
APOCALYPTIC…EXPANSIVE
The band tell us how the current album “is bookended by our most expansive, apocalyptic offerings conceived to date. The core of the record is a pulsating collection of witching hour melodies and strobe lit rhythms behind deep lyrical themes.” And we’re up for that!
Expansive and apocalyptic, enigmatic and dark indeed as the opening few moments of Black Rock confirm. Lee Vernon declaring how they’re not looking for salvation. No surprise…but…murky depths are certainly plumbed. Lashings of keyboard which are set to return on a regular basis, underpin the tune. Throw in some shivering atmospherics in a mid song break down and a hypnotic interval that builds to the smart instrumental volley and Pearl Handled Revolver earn a big tick in the psych box. And talk of salvation, is there more than a hint of the hellfire of Nick Cave dialled in there. It has been noted. Wait and see.
At the back end, the second ten minuter, Junkies owes a nod to the keyboard sound of the Doors or The Stranglers. The one that sounds all fairground jolly. Once again, it’s Simon Rinaldo’s piano and especially organ sound that evokes an atmosphere that’s reassuringly retro. A grinding miasma. The sound of the colours being nailed to the mast, declaring a retro feast but we do love doing the time warp (again).
OVERDRIVEN TIMEBOMBS
A further half dozen bites of the cherry come inbetween. Hammer in particular, sees the organ take the lead with fat chords on a moody excursion.Stop start riffing and classic keyboard hard rock of the highest order makes Gilding The Lily (that may be a euphemism but is actually a contradiction in terms with the tune. Not averse to heading into a more mellow direction, the electric piano takes over from the graveyard organ and be prepared for a hint of palm muted funk to add to the groove of Heart Of Gold that tootles along until an overdriven timebomb explodes into a mass of incantations and shady flames.
Clearly a band with a penchant for what shook the music world some decades gone by. Some relics of a bygone age might be crusty and of no worth, but Tales You Lose is another thrilling episode, hopefully one to be continued, in the tale of Pearl Handled Revolver.
Here’s Space Invader:
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