Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: No Rules
Label: Front Rock Records
Release: 2011
Runtime: 36:14
Rating: 4/5
On their third studio album, Tuzla’s stripped-down rock n’ rollers No Rules lean even harder into the rhetoric of the blues. “Homesick Blues” feels more intimate and even more organic than its two studio predecessors, and the quartet’s excellent instrumental chops come through more and more, led by the wide arsenal of guitar know-how that Dražen Mulaosmanović brings to the table.
Of course, the tried-and-true No Rules formula is still front and center: a penetrating rock n’ roll drive, topped off by Goran Čampara’s nasal, throaty vocals and that signature Southern “desperado” twang of bending guitar notes. No Rules haven’t skipped the touch of tongue-in-cheek macho sarcasm this time around either. But you can tell the band has matured and approaches the new material more intimately than ever. The production is alive, the embrace of the guitar riffs carries that erogenous, hedonistic ring (inherited from the previous two albums) and fits Goran’s disillusioned vocals perfectly.
So on the new album they’ve gone a notch further and worked a more noticeable blues note into every song, which in turn wipes out that old-school Rolling Stones-style ring many tracks on the previous two albums carried. In this newly established musical setting, Mulaosmanović manages to squeeze out even more room to flaunt and capitalize on his wide guitar arsenal. The song Ne okreći leđa sreći (translation: Don’t Turn Your Back on Luck) is undoubtedly one of the album’s highlights, thanks to a superb, finely detailed lap pedal guitar part.
Despite the softening of the artists’ hearts that comes with age, “Homesick Blues” still keeps the lasting fraternal, umbilical bond with bands from the former Yugoslav region, from Slovenia’s Hic Et Nunc and Res Nullius to Serbia’s Partibrejkers or Croatia’s Majke. In their preaching, No Rules remain clearly distinct and their own. That punk rock n’ roller bond is most strongly embodied in the more directly cut Pjevajuči Blues, the opener Uzmi moje srce, and Sirovi i biijesni.
A special moment on the album is the tribute to Rory Gallagher in Preko neba, which captures the ideal mix of bare rock n’ roll drive carried off in juicy bluesy melody, steeped in Southern melodrama, with a superb slide guitar solo locking into it. Čampara’s vocals sound so real that it’s not hard to catch hefty whiffs of whiskey in them. Brilliant!
The dark Umrli su u čizmama (translation: They Died in Their Boots), girded with a firm Rhythm N’ Blues backbone, works especially well in its authentic, direct delivery of the message. The rolling “beat” that the loose, vividly humming guitar riffs of Southern melody hang from is the perfect landscape, where Goran’s vocals reach the optimal range for interpreting No Rules’ poetry.
That the band really gave more motif and instrumental variety a shot this time is confirmed by the instrumental El Pussy, where the sound is once again richly soaked in lap pedal guitar soloing. This track gratefully splits the album ahead of the last song, San (there’s even a mandolin in the accompaniment), which stands out on the record. A country tune with a female guest vocal will confuse and annoy the purists among you looking for the rock core. The band was aware of that itself, which is why they put the song right at the very end of the album. It feels more like a bonus track, and the album would work fine, or even better, without it.
“Homesick Blues” thus keeps No Rules’ traditional sonic trademarks while the band widens its sonic and expressive space with the album. It has a slightly more sophisticated and organic production that leaves behind even more intense feelings of intimacy. It’s an excellent mix of Southern desperado machismo, backed with a juicy dose of brilliant musicianship, and an album that, in artistic terms, delivers No Rules’ most expressively diverse record to date and a bold new step in their development, so it’ll be interesting to see where their musical path leads them next.
Lineup
Goran Čampara – vocals, guitar, harmonica
Dražen Mulaosmanović – guitar, lap slide guitar, mandolin
Danijel Stuhli – bass guitar
Bojan Divković – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Biljana Pejić – vocals on track no. 11
Production
Dražen Mulaosmanović
Tracklist
1. Uzmi moje srce
2. Hladan dan
3. Ne reci da me voliš
4. Homesick Blues
5. Sirovi i bijesni
6. Ne okreći leđa sreći
7. Pjevajući Blues
8. Preko neba
9. Umrli su u ćizmama
10. El Pussy
11. San
