The Bronx – Bronx V
Label: Cooking Vinyl/ATO Records
Release Date: 22nd September 2017
The issue that a band as brilliant as The Bronx have is that anything they release will come with sky-high levels of expectations. The LA punk rockers boast an untouchable back catalogue of four top class records and a live set as in your face and tight as they come.
‘Night Drop at the Glue Factory’ kicks off the record in true Bronx style, this one doesn’t hold back at all. It features everything you’d expect; big fuck off power chord riffs played at 100 miles per hour, a bassline groovy enough to make even the biggest of naysayers want to dance about and of course rounded off by Matt Caughtran’s bellowed vocals. One thing for sure is that this song should be a staple in the Bronx’s set from now til the end of time. ‘Stranger Danger’ keeps up the tempo of the records opener but it comes and goes without doing anything to special, which becomes a theme throughout the remainder of the record.
Another stand out moment of the record comes in the form of the fourth track ‘Fill the Tanks’, arguably it forms the records heaviest moments but I feel like it’s let down with its placement. ‘Fill the Tanks’ gets sandwiched between two of the records more chilled out tracks, so the momentum picked up from the first two tracks is lost and although the tempo is regained, it’s short lived as ‘Channel Islands’ reverts back to a more laidback groove.
‘Sore Throat’ was released before the album as a taster and I must admit when I heard it at first I thought it was good but I hoped there would be stronger songs on the record, as it happens ‘Sore Throat’ still remains one of the best tracks on the record but since its initial release has grown massively on me; I’d genuinely consider this one for my top 10 Bronx songs.
There isn’t much to write home about with the final four tracks of ‘Bronx V’ which is a shame as I thought this record would be a challenger for my top 5 records of the year but unfortunately a lot of the songs are just lacking in that spark which takes a song from being good to truly brilliant. Despite there being some lackluster moments, the brilliance of tracks such as ‘Sore Throat’ and ‘Fill the Tanks’ maintain that this album is still a decent enough record. There aren’t any bad songs here, although single ‘Two Birds’ is probably my least favorite Bronx song to date, it just doesn’t live up to the dizzy heights of Bronx I-IV.
Rating: 5.5/10
Recommended Tracks: Sore Throat, Night Drop at the Glue Factory & Fill the Tanks
Check out The Bronx’s social media for updates on live shows as this is a band you cannot afford to miss live, as well as a competiton on their facebook page to win a signed copy of a test press of Bronx V: