Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There will always be one album that catches you unawares. No matter how many you manage to listen to in a week, occasionally something will ping in the back of the brain and you will sit down, disregard everything else that is going on and needs to be done and just sit mesmerised by the sound of the incredible, the stark reality of beauty that squeezes itself out of your stereo. Babajack have that in abundance on their latest album Running Man. Ignore the phone, make sure no one knocks on the door demanding to know if you are free for a drink, Running Man is much more important than any almost anything else you can be doing right now.
If the music isn’t enough to wet the whistle in appreciation then the fantastic vocals of Becky Tate, sublime, silky and with the charisma of a goddess whispering temptation to you surely should set the seal on what is a tremendous album. The heady combination of great lyrics, expert musicianship from Trevor Stegar, Tosh Murase, Adam Bertenshaw and the exceptional cello work of Julia Palmer-Price and deep sense of longing that seeps out of every groove and digital bit is intoxicating, the listener may as well hand back the keys to the brewery, tell everyone there that the free session is over as there is now a better place to have the party.
Kicking off with the album with the title track, Babajack start as they mean to go on and Becky Tate’s vocals glide smoothly and yet with purpose and with so much passion in her voice that the listener will get goose bumps and the feeling of being mesmerised by a master hypnotised. When added to the guitar work laid down by Trevor Stegar, tracks such as Rock n’ Roll Star, the excellent Death Letter and Hammer and Tongs just jump out at the listener and will haunt their dreams.
Albums come and albums go, what is good today, in a year’s time might be considered old hat, a relic of infatuation but Running Man is surely destined to be admired for a long, long time. Outrageously superb.
Running Man is released on October 7th.
Ian D. Hall