Claude Hay - Roller Coaster (2016)

Tracklist

01. Burn
02. What It Takes
03. Forget About Me
04. Roller Coaster
05. Hold You Up
06. Love No More
07. 241
08. Talk to the Hand
09. Road Rage
10. Winner
11. Running
12. Never Say Goodbye



Claude Hay’s new album Rollercoaster is a corn dog wrapped in a funnel cake with a deep-fried Oreo for dessert. The album kicks off with “Burn,” a Cyclone of a blues-pop-rock beast, that doesn’t make you keep your arms and hands inside the vehicle. Soon to follow, “Rollercoaster,” the album’s namesake is a powerful slightly dark and anything but cliché, blues masterpiece.

In fact, the whole album while completely falling into the blues genre refuses to let itself be defined on such simple terms. Instead Hay writes short, witty songs, some up beat and in need of a Corkscrew, some downbeat and serious that take you on a Voyage, but always something new and fresh. Quite a few of the tracks have a hint (or more) of banjo, completely owning the gypsy vibe the album gives off.

My favorite track, “241,” is a Magnum of a song about a Bizarro shopping experience. Claude Hay is a Maverick on an Outlaw Run, a songwriter, doing his own thing and having great success at doing it.

Writing an album while spending the majority of your time touring Australia and Europe is a Goliath of a task, and a first time for Hay to be writing songs specifically for a full band performance instead of preparing for a solo tour. If you just close your eyes and listen, the album comes with a free Coney Island style freak show. Rollercoaster is a Steel Force to be reckoned with. The Review 9/10.

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [flac]