Artist: Johnny Burning
Label: Street Symphonies Records
Release: 2008
Length: 44:27
Rating: 4/5
In the current revival of late-eighties sleaze glam rock, it’s mostly the Scandinavian bands leading the charge, with Chrash Diet and their debut as probably the most important face of this revision! It’s hard to believe, but Johnny Burning, with their debut “Get Up Get Loose Get Off!” (2008), deliver yet another superbly convincing record that works on every basic level that goes into building good sleaze.
The cloning that so skillfully channels the Italian approach is, this time around, incredibly beside the point. The quintet from Imola sounds tight, and everyone’s contributions complement each other brilliantly as they put their ideas on the table for the band’s common cause on this album. Every single track is mighty convincing and then some. Seductive. The band has the charisma to show off the goods. Johnny Burning come across on this record as naughty, hedonistic, untamed. Hot, in other words. Great production is of course the first prerequisite that makes an album built on worn-out music, pulled out of mothballs and played all over again, so appealingly convincing. You just wish more albums like this had been made back in the eighties, in the golden age, because today a band with an “extinct,” or rather irrelevant, musical genre has that much more trouble elbowing its way in.
The center of this band’s charisma gathers around singer Manuel. The guy has an insanely high voice. Everything rises and falls on it. Even the band’s whole potential fanbase, that’s how specific the voice is. You can only love it or hate it. Literally, for a (presumably) male person, it’s a truly unbelievable voice. In fact, the first time I listened to the album, it fit into the overall sound so well that I said to myself: “Clever! A female voice in glam rock! How well this works!!!” Then I grab the promo CD, flip it over, and can’t find a girl in the back photo, just guys. A great joke that belongs in the sleaze playbook, except that on top of everything it’s actually real! I can’t describe it any better than to say the dude obviously swallowed an enormous balloon full of helium before heading into the studio. The higher he goes with the registers, the noisier and the more convincing he gets. On top of that, he has an edge over many of his Italian countrymen in that his English singing is incredibly understandable, which is a must. Plenty of Italian bands usually crash and burn when they try to speak, let alone sing, American-style (although the Italian audience doesn’t mind this depraved delivery of English at all).
But the real listener will quickly discover that behind the screamingly shrill female vocal front and center, there’s great music hiding. Even when the songs with astonishingly goofy titles start to boil, like Idiota or Sassy Lassie Goose (all that’s missing is Titty) – that track (with a prominent cowbell) is one of the album’s highlights – these guys don’t take their foot off the gas. It’s a voluminous, rolling sleaze glam drive with a perfectly balanced production, thick bass legs, great communication between solid, compact riffs adorned with the primal sharpness of instant under-the-skin penetration, and the guitar work is rounded out by excellent, polished solos. Johnny Burning are a band with a great feel for bringing out the lead melody. Add that performance “oomph” and the thing sounds convincing. If it doesn’t blow your head off at the start of the album, Burning Miracle definitely will.
A “nasty,” “kinky,” “sassy” sausage! And more! Maybe not all of it is fit for public consumption. Manuel isn’t just dressed as a woman (which is part of the arsenal of a true sleaze rock cult, make no mistake), he also sings like one, which is unbelievable. The album is superbly carved from head to toe, and the guys confirm it with the phenomenal ballad Shine (that chorus!!!), the kind that even the masters of ballads from sleaze’s golden days, Cinderella, wouldn’t be ashamed of. Sure, a few tracks have holes where there’s room for improvement, but as a general verdict on a debut, this time it’s definitely an overachievement beyond expectations. The golden eighties, Motley Crue still fresh and solid! Feeling nostalgic? Spin Johnny Burning! An important debut for the sleaze revival!
Lineup
Manuel – vocals
D.B. – guitar
Niko – guitar
Cesko – bass
Rob – drums
Tracklist
01. Intro
02. Wrong Shape
03. Devil Inside
04. Sassy Lassie Goose
05. Idiota
06. Lost & Found
07. Burning Miracle
08. Time To Rock
09. Shine
10. Rock In The U.S.A.
11. Turn Down Just To Leave It
