Sweet Apple - Love and Desperation

Album Review by Mark Shukla | 31 Mar 2010
Album title: Love and Desperation
Artist: Sweet Apple
Label: Tee Pee
Release date: 19 April

Whilst nothing can fully erase the pain of losing a loved one, getting asked to join a band with J. Mascis is probably a pretty good distraction by anyone's standards – and that's precisely what happened to Cobra Verde frontman John Petkovic after his friends (Mascis included) saw him spiralling towards self-destruction following the death of his mother. This record is the result of Petkovic's musical rehabilitation: a levels-in-the-red collection of power-pop, classic rock and overdriven blues that belies the trauma of its genesis. With Mascis behind the skins, Petkovic et al. conjure up some serious muscle on tracks such as the riotous Hold Me, I'm Dying but too many songs are hobbled by a reliance on second-hand blues/grunge riffs and embarrassing stadium rock middle 8s. The atypically ethereal Dead Moon is by far the strongest track here but it's a distinct anomaly on this otherwise frustratingly uneven album. [Mark Shukla]

 

http://www.myspace.com/sweetapplesongs