Movie Star Junkies - Evil Moods
- Written by Kenneth McMurtrie
Album number four from Turin quintet Movie Star Junkies (who we unfortunately missed seeing at this year's Le Guess Who? a couple of weekends ago) and they've returned to the more garage sound they first let loose on the unsuspecting world back in 2008.
Their debut from that year, Melville, was named after the writer of Moby Dick and literary themes inform both 2010's A Poison Tree, with William Blake being the thematic starting point then, and Evil Moods, which finds inspiration in the hard-boiled works of Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain et al.
Consequently a lot of noir themes and imagery are employed throughout the album's ten tracks. 'Three Time Lost', for instance, deals with the discovery of a "body in the black suit" and a subsequent delve into the murkier depths of the night. Elsewhere the band get into sub-horror rock stylings on 'A Promise' and 'Please Come Home'.
'Rising', however, lightens things up a touch with its more upbeat yet still plaintive tone. The xylophone used on it contributes a lot to that, bringing to mind the soundtracks of Fifties or Sixties film adaptations of detective crime tales. Things move on a decade when strident brass lends a more Seventies-crime urgency to the flagrant and bold 'Jim Thompson'.
Movie Star Junkies have always successfully married up intelligent and intellectually interesting subject matter with good honest rock and roll, rather than smothering their topics of interest in pretension and over-blown, polished music lacking any soul. Evil Moods carries this on successfully whilst also seeing the band broaden their sonic palate. With luck they'll become your new favourite Italian band.
