ROCK 'N' ROLL EXPRESS

Although French multi-instrumentalist Sébastien Gramond has vastly improved his craft in general with his more recent works, it's clear with an album like this that there will still be duds along the way. 'Rock n' Roll Express'- as one may derive from the title- is Gramond's attempt at classic rock n' roll and blues, and while this on its own is fairly promising, the way it has been done here is disappointing at best, and quite easily one of the worst things I have heard from Gramond at worst. Suffice to say, 'Rock n' Roll Express' is a failure, and its made all the more disappointing by the fact that Sébastien Gramond is capable of so much more.

As usual, all of the instruments here are performed by Sébastien Gramond himself, these include a Hammond organ, guitars, drums and his distinctive vocal style. Gramond's strong potential with instrumentation is where the good things about 'Rock n' Roll Express' begin and end. As can be heard in the strong acoustic plucking in 'Blues For Dues', Gramond certainly knows how to play guitar. The drums here are also fairly strong, featuring rapid fills in many of the album's more upbeat tracks.

Unfortunately, this all comes together into an obnoxious muffled mess. Although I can see Sébastien Gramond doing well with old rock and blues styles, it comes across here as being incredibly noisy, and the vocals here generally amount to a muddy screech. The weak production here also bogs down the performance by making many of the instruments sound far noisier than they ever should have been.

Generally being a fan and supporter of Sébastien Gramond's work, I can say that 'Rock n' Roll Express' has been one of the weakest experiences I have thus had with his work.