There was a time. Yes, there was time when rock bands went far further than four chords and Les Trois Tetons replay those glory days with their fourth studio album “Songs About Lou” as a concept, a line of thought if you like, holds these fifteen songs together.
For those of you familiar with Les Trois Tetons, nothing more need be said other than to confirm that the polish, poise and skill that you have come to expect of this Italian band are all present and correct. Those of you unfamiliar with the band may well be properly impressed by those very skills too as, like many of their European contemporaries such as Joan & The Sailors, Les Trois Tetons play with the kind of focus that you would expect of an American band.
“Songs About Lou” – sung entirely in English – has that old school rock feel and sense of purpose as if playing was this band’s very reason for being with the vocals having grit and the guitars evoking the easy going glories of times past. Prick you ears and listen, for example, to the lilting rhythms of “Breaking Point” as the words of torment turn into a strident finish. The melancholic “Wide Mouth”, on the other hand, demonstrates a rock opera sensibility which, whilst still a product of the past, is refreshing in its dramatic scope and neatly sets the scene for the last song, “Long Fingered Hands”, that reprises in a Tom Waits style all that has gone before it.
“Songs About Lou” is a confident, if downbeat, album that will appeal to those who appreciate maturity when making their choice of rock music.