Stephen
Fourth album since House of Lords' rebirth in 2006 with new formation and this shows how the band has been consistently putting out good albums one after another. After the slightly tired and sloppy third release, House of Lords is finally bringing back the vehicle on track. If you remember the highly acclaimed release of 'Demons Down', it's apparent that James Christian tried to relive the vibe of that album in here, and spice it up with their recent sound.
The output of this experiment is a very diverse record and rich in influences on most of the tracks, like the Led Zeppelin feel with slow-paced-heavy-riffs in 'One Man Down'; the middle-eastern feel on 'Living In A Dream World'; the bluesy touch on 'Searchin'; and even the metallic explosive on 'Blood'. The drawback is that it might not appeal the masses easily and I myself also found some inconsistency in several songs and only around 5 real champions.
'First To Cry' and 'Someday When' are two magnificent midtempo melodic rockers; 'The Next Time I Hold You' is a big ballad and this track alone can lure you to buy the disc. Ballads are the area where House of Lords excel and James Christian's superior vocal fits perfectly on this type of song. 'Hologram' and 'Once Twice' are couple best tunes of the second half.
The low point of this album is the horrible production. It sounded like a dusty demos tape from an old basement and this flaw prevented me from giving 'Big Money' any score higher than 80%. Great album anyway and fans of House of Lords or melodic rock in general should buy this for their own collection.