Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Drinkers, The
Label: Gong Records
Release: 2014
Length: 34:06
Rating: 4/5
It took a whole seven years for the drink’n’roll champions The Drinkers to get a new album out. A lot has changed in the band’s camp since their last record, »Hajdi«, and that’s where you’ll find the reasons for the (way too) long studio absence. The Drinkers thanked vocalist Maki and guitarist Koza for their service and welcomed back returnee Koli on vocals and Primož on keyboards, plus a newcomer behind the drum kit, the thoroughly respectable Klemen Markelj. The old pals gave it time, got a feel for each other again over a ton of gigs, and meanwhile new material started taking shape, ripening and finally ripe in the first half of this year, when they launched their seventh studio album overall, »Recidiv«.
It’s the returnees who brought a fresh breeze into the band! On »Hajdi«, partly under the influence of the lineup at the time, the Drinkers sailed into punk rock waters and put out the most distorted album of their career. With »Recidiv«, one guitar short but beefed up with keyboards, they head back down the old rock’n’roll roads that, together with their mischievous, booze-soaked lyrics, long ago crowned them members of the Slovenian rock elite. Elite in the good sense of the word, meaning an authentic approach that took them far, as opposed to the meaning that’s all too often abused today, one that covers assorted freeloaders and hangers-on the Drinkers love to make fun of! A big moment came for the band three years ago, when Sandi Kolenc – Koli, the band’s evergreen frontman, returned to the fold. For health reasons he hasn’t poured anything strong down his throat for a long time, but he’s still the very same guy who swings the chainsaw and drives the band’s machinery forward with charisma the size of Triglav. So good old Koli is back in the harness, and with him the Drinkers have won back a bit of their dented credibility. Truth be told, those words »Trboule are the law, there’s a sign on the bridge, entry forbidden to fools!« only sound genuine and homey coming out of his mouth.
»Recidiv« is way more compact than its predecessor, as the batch of eleven songs offers a trip back to the band’s classic sound, the way it ran through their albums up to »Prohibicija« (2003), without any fear of excessive punk or even metal excursions. That of course doesn’t mean those two elements are left out completely! The track Nenormalna can’t hide Likar’s flirtation with punk, the aggressive F.A.S., with Mutvar’s thickened bass line, conjures up the ever-welcome troublemakers Motörhead, but even the album’s most stylistically divergent moments still follow the recognizable, playful flavor of the Trbovlje-Ljubljana boozers.
The Drinkers wouldn’t be the Drinkers if they didn’t tell comic stories about the little helpless guy through their lyrics. Once again they’ve worked over Mafalda’s life story, Huda baba doesn’t get off any better, and Pilatus is full of harmless social pranks, with a “guest appearance” by the Most Reverend Cardinal Rode in the middle. The album (surprisingly) contains not a single anthemic booze hymn, which is a first in the band’s discography. Of course, Koli’s sober state of mind turned to general social-critical topics rather than the old love, and Trboule brings both a healthy dose of patriotism and a tribute to the local mining district, with the parallel to Orleki more than fitting.
Listening to »Recidiv«, it’s not hard to catch the exceptional chemistry that fills the band when they’ve got the classic guitar / keyboards combo. Primož changes up his recipe from track to track, so at times his approach is bouncy boogie rock’n’roll, and at others, like in Debeli avioni, the keyboards are draped over the basic guitar phrase like a blanket. Main songwriter and guitarist Robert Likar also gave himself a decent solo spot in Avioni, which is a rarely heard element with the Drinkers, given how they subconsciously follow primal rock’n’roll culture. One of the more compositionally interesting tracks is the title track Recidiv, with its inseparable interweaving of verses and choruses, and a catchiness that just won’t leave your ears! Trboule, a monument to the band’s most full-blooded rhetoric, with the guitar »drive« of Desetih jagrov, holds all the philosophical simplicity of the »more is less« principle – one more proof that there’s no danger »Recidiv« won’t pick up the label of a classic Drinkers record over time. For the first time in the band’s twenty-year history, the album consists exclusively of original material, which these seasoned musicians once again managed to package into a clearly defined, listenable whole, so it will no doubt become a must-have in the collection of every follower of the band.
Lineup
Sandi Kolenc (Koli) – vocals
Robert Likar – guitar
Miro Mutvar – bass guitar
Primož Trebec – keyboards
Klemen Markelj – drums
Production
Robert Likar
Track list
1. Huda baba
2. Pridi
3. Nenormalna
4. Trboule
5. Debeli avioni
6. Jutro na Fužinah
7. Pilatus
8. Recidiv
9. F.A.S.
10. …
11. Mafalda Vol. 2
