Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: 24.01.2020
Production: George Lynch
Album length: 55:54 min
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 8.5 / 10
The combination of guitar powerhouse George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob) and rising vocal star, Croatian Dino Jelusić, under the banner of the Dirty Shirley project is no surprise at all. We all know the former very well, and as for Jelusić, it’s enough to point out that his band Animal Drive, thanks to its outstanding quality, was snapped up very quickly by Frontiers Music Srl. (they’ve got a great studio debut and a covers EP out there). Jelusić, who unsurprisingly, given his exceptional chops, also sings for Trans Siberian Orchestra, is a next-generation vocalist who, much like Jorn Lande, the latter belonging to “one generation back,” pulls such charisma and vibe out of his voice that it will feel very much like home to eighties hard rock nostalgics, and to those from the second half of the seventies too. Rainbow, Whitesnake, DIO, “Dio/Martin era” Black Sabbath spring to mind right away and, of course, given the phrasing and songwriting, Dokken and Lynch Mob.
Jelusić keeps developing his own vocal character. He’s incredibly powerful, piercing, and generates a giant energy as he soars through the various heights of extremely distinctive and memorable vocal lines across the album. He builds up enormous vocal power and carries it through the vocal melody with feather-light ease. At the same time, his delivery has been aptly fitted with the charisma of Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale, and now and then the associations jump to a Paul Rodgers too. It’s worth adding that Jelusić must also be a big Jorn Lande fan. But watch out: the voice is basically all his own. The name-dropping matters mainly because the hard rock recipe that Lynch otherwise carries in his left pinky pulls, thanks to Dino’s vocal characteristics, more heavily toward the bands cited in the first paragraph of this review.
The hard rock recipe this project runs on feels “American,” which means it’s also firmly backed by the blues, something that might get fans of The Black Crowes excited, while those of you who know Lynch Mob well won’t be all that surprised. If Jelusić’s voice leaned more toward Plant, then phrasing and all, he’d have pulled this album in a more Zeppelin-ish direction at times, but luckily Jelusić is no Oni Logan.
That there are too many tracks on the album and that it runs too long hardly needs saying. Over the last twenty years that’s become a mantra when we talk about this kind of hard rock “experiment.” Musicians struggle with picking their material, which ends up doing the record more harm than good. The template for writing this kind of hard rock is simply “too narrow” for songs to run longer than four and a half minutes, and the trap of “self-repetitive” phrase recycling isn’t far off from there. The album is two tracks too long. And if there’d been just a bit of picking the best of the best, it would have ignited even more fiercely and intensely over a tight 40 minutes. But never mind. If this turns out to be a one-off album from this project, then at least this way we got all the music possible.
In the production, Lynch deliberately keeps the often dirty, greasy and “crunchy” sound that’s typical of Lynch Mob too. Bassist Trevor Roxx delivers a great leveling force here, with his musical bass playing and his punchy, penetrating character.
Fans of the classic hard rock school will be thrilled. There’s no doubt about that. So will fans of George Lynch’s antics, who shows inexhaustible creativity on this album too and never lets you down. And that’s a good thing. Die-hard classic hard rock fans will grab this album with both hands right away and, let’s be honest, it’s great. Sure, it has “too much of everything” (read: it’s too long), it sometimes bends and cracks under the sheer force Lynch delivers on one side and Jelusić on the other, but at the same time, that’s exactly what makes it so thrilling. Frankly put, Lynch is once again at the peak of his genius sense for virtuoso showmanship, serving up refined tricks of exceptional manual dexterity, while also providing dramatic theater, again with witty embellishments that only he can work in and that really do shape the recognizable nature of his playing. Lynch also took the production helm for this album, which was the only sensible move.
The album has a gloomy, atmospheric character. It feels dramatic. It feels dirty and bluesy, yet carries a measure of pomp, precisely thanks to Dino Jelusić’s outstanding vocal execution. Lynch’s guitar playing has always needed a strong, authoritative vocalist at its side. This time he got one, and “Dirty Shirley” is a phenomenal combination of virtuoso chops and execution from two top-class musicians who, simply put, wow you at every turn.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Here Comes The King
2. Dirty Blues
3. I Disappear
4. The Dying
5. Last Man Standing
6. Siren Song
7. The Voice Of A Soul
8. Cold
9. Escalator To Purgatory
10. Higher
11. Grand Master
Lineup:
Dino Jelusić – vocals, keyboards
George Lynch – guitar
Trevor Roxx – bass guitar
Will Hunt – drums
