New York-based rockers Specialists have just released their latest album “Hole In The Wall”, wherein they wanted to capture the essence of every city they toured in the past year. With many influences to inspire them, each song on this 9-track record has a different flavor to it.
The opening track gives the album its name. It’s a funky number with buzzing guitar lines and complex bass riffs. I miss when rock bands used to have such present and stylish bassists like this. The use of airy head voice along with the drum line here might remind you of The Bee Gees at first listen, but later on, you’ll realize it’s a lot more composite and multi-layered than that. The keys/synths and the technical soloing part in the song’s bridge give it a very futuristic vibe that I highly enjoyed.
The second track, Birdseye, is a groovier and more dancy number with a futuristic keyboard solo and a shreddy guitar solo combating the drum and bass lines that will send you flying, and the powerful vocals – it’s basically the track where they show off all their abilities. I enjoyed moving and dancing along to this amazing song. The third track, Why Do You?, has a very interesting arrangement, which consists of calm verses and an explosive chorus. The vocalist’s nasality and strong command of his mixed register. Glass is a longer track with slower and more extended verses, a great wah-pedal on the guitars, and as usual, higher vocals on the chorus.
Brave is a nice and poppy mid-tempo number and it has my favorite chorus on the whole album. Waste Time shows some reggae-like percussions that made the vibes so different and versatile compares to the rest of the pack. Similarly, In my opinion, Head In My Hand has the potential to become very trendy once it gets highly promoted and reaches more people. It has 2 amazing and melodic guitar solos, so strap on for how amazing of a journey it is.
The eighth track, Charade, has some of the most amazing bass work I’ve heard in my entire life, not just on the album or in funk rock (yes it’s that good). It also has a very memorable riff that will remain stuck in your head for days. The tenth and final track, I Got You, is very percussive/rhythmic and that makes it so memorable. The guitar solo here is amazing and larger than life. It ends the song (literally) on a high note.
In conclusion, this album maintains being an all-around funk and pop-rock banger while being sophisticated and balancing substance and style. I was amazed by how different and diverse today’s bands could sound like. So if you ever feel like testing something bluesy/funky then I suggest you listen to this beast of an album.
