Stephen
Take a handful sleazy jam of American's Faster Pusscat or Guns N' Roses, stir it up with some garage punky attitude from The Clash, and blasted it high with some heavy rhythm of classic heavy metal and you'll get the idea of how Babyjane will sound. This Australian new act took a brave step of inviting veteran producer, Michael Wagener, to handle their debut, and this bold move displayed a big confidence on their side that this album is totally valuable for that price.
"Are You Listening", the title track and apparently, their first single, bring the heat up with its furious riffage and blistering chorus. A nice portion of sleaze and heavy metal wrapped tightly in an aggressive environment, a similar approach was done in "Give It All Up" and "Tell Me (What I Need To Know)". Some AC/DC mix is shown in "Lil' Gutters", a killer track for sure. Couple other fave tracks of mine are "Can You Keep A Secret", injected with GNR's famous hooks and twisted with a slight commercial touch, making this track highly enjoyable; and "Twenty Too Many", a sleazy commercial hard rock with superb chorus.
Andy Smith's vocal is very different and unique, perhaps a rough mixture of Tom Keifer, Brian Johnson, and Axl Rose. John Gerasolo provided nifty outstanding solos in most of the songs here. Actually, the band as a whole is tight and talented. With a smooth production, "Are You Listening" is a very good debut and I can see how they got the potential of becoming bigger in the years to come. A great starter!