Album number three from Southend on Sea’s The Lucky Strikes and it is an album with a story, or at least a concept, holding it all together. It’s a good thing to have something like that and the near true story of a boxer called Frankie Valentinez should have made for interesting glue.
However, things don’t really work out that well. The band soon become unstuck and sound like any number of plodding British bands lacking the sparkle of Tom Waits style musical stardust necessary to carry such a concept off. The main handicap, however, is the songs that just aren’t memorable – even now I can’t name a single one of them. On the plus side, the vocals do at least convince the listener of theatrical intent but that just isn’t enough to hold your interest.
Ultimately, “Gabriel, Forgive My 22 Sins” is a good idea that fails in its execution. Either that or it was actually designed from the start to be a souvenir of a stage musical in which case it might be seen as having achieved its objective. What’s that old saying? Their reach appears to have exceeded their grasp.