Lord Sonny The Unifier. Now there’s a proper name for a band and you just know that a band with a name like that is going to play the sound of the city or, at least, the sleazier side of it anyway. Onwards into the shadows we therefore go with “You Were Born to Save Your Life”.
You might think that a rock band that has absorbed the influences of the past would be the very model of conventionality yet, while the retro synthesiser sounds and guitar solos are indeed present and correct, there is also a rather unexpected theatricality stamping individuality on the ten songs on this album with Lord Sonny himself having moves that would not be out of place on the sidewalks and stages of 42nd Street. In fact, if anyone were ever to make a musical about a band that escaped from prison and relocated to Brooklyn in search of redemption then Lord Sonny The Unifier would surely be on the soundtrack.
Whilst beer consumption and the possession of questionable facial hair in a fashion that was fashionable before there was fashion would certainly aid in increasing the listener’s enjoyment of this album, Lord Sonny The Unifier have put more than enough musical skill and imagination into “You Were Born to Save Your Life” to make it rather more than your standard rock album. Like I said before, this album is a musical in the making.
Available from Bandcamp.