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Iron Chic

The Constant One

Written by: PP on 11/12/2013 21:49:10

If there's one thing among the many that Latterman were so good at, it was writing brilliant singalongs. Iron Chic, featuring Phil Douglas on guitar and golden throat Jason Lubrano on vocals, is basically his avenue to continue writing more of those honest, heartfelt melodies that made them a seminal band in their time. Already on debut album "Not Like This" three years ago Iron Chic proved to be everything Latterman fans hoped them to be, allowing Douglas to use his guitar melodies in favour of a cleaner vocal style without sacrificing his frankly amazing sense for what makes an unforgettable melody. Lubrano himself is of course is absolutely brilliant on his own turf, firing off lyrics that are borderline genius, meaning many of the sing alongs you'll find on sophomore album "The Constant One" are guaranteed to embed themselves into your mind pretty much permanently. One quick listen to "A Serious House On Serious Earth" in the player below should be enough, I mean consider just the opening passage alone, let alone the rest of the song: "You had a heart of gold / I know because I fucking sold it / Truth be told / I couldn't even say what I did with the money / Heads are like that / At least for me when I try to think back". The arrangement of the melody with those lyrics is simply spectacularly good.

And that is the story of "The Constant One" from start to finish pretty much. Verses? Sing along. Choruses? Yep, you know it. Bridges? Are you even questioning it at this stage? This is the reason an entire room at FEST sang along nonstop from start to finish when Iron Chic delivered forty minutes of the above. The emotion that Lubrano packs into his vocals is substantial, especially because he never needs to resort into anything that even nears a scream nor a gravelly vocal. This is pure cleans all the way. At the same time, the instrumentation stays at mid tempo levels for the majority of the album, giving the songs even more room to breathe.

If punk songs could ever be referred to as truly anthemic, then songs from "The Constant One" would be it. Given the great lyrical universe and plenty of introspective, self-evaluating (but NOT self-hating) lyrics, songs like "Wolf Dix Rd." are arguably among the best this year:

"I'm gonna think real hard / About what I'm gonna say / I really couldn't stand you thinking any less of me / And how I spend my days / So I'm looking for the perfect phrase. [...] What was the question? / I don’t know / I wasn’t paying attention. / You say I’m lacking direction. / Is my course corrected? / I don't fucking know / I’m going to find out on my own"

Not to even mention that they are catchy as the fucking plague. For anyone that says punk rock is dead, play them "The Constant One" to shut them up.

Download: Bogus Journey, Wolf Dix Rd., Prototypes, A Serious House On Serious Earth
For the fans of: Latterman, Dillinger Four, Get Bent, singing along from the top of your lungs
Listen: Facebook

Release date 05.11.2013
Bridge 9 Records