Izzatso? Is the latest album by legendary live act The Witchdoktors, who I've lost count of how many times I've seen them play over the years, they were one of the regular live bands at the 12 Bar club back in the day. The current line-up for this album are Andy Last, Tony Major, Joe Colefar and Lee Page with special guest guitarist Leigh Heggarty. They started recording the album with Pat Collier at his legendary Perry Vale studios, sadly Pat died before the album was completed, so they got Tim Palmer to mix the rough tapes in Austin Texas and finished things off with Grant Strang at Silver Shark Studios in Sarf london.
The album opens with Lighting Strike that has The Witchdoktors trademark riffs and Planet Andy's cool upfront vocals about how things haven't been changing for the better, waiting for the walls to come tumbling down so we can rebuild better than before.
The main single Before The War is about the war between lovers whose relationship has gone from being like a holiday, to being a living hellscape, full of darkness and pain, Like life before during and after the pandemic, driven along by another glorious riff from Tony Major and pinpoint drumming.
High Dry & Burn chugs along like you're on a big old hog and want to let rip, scintillating guitars rip through the slipstream, while Andy's vocals go low to make clear how High he is, how Dry he's become & just how much he needs a burning sax solo.
Freedom Fighter sees them skanking like old friends Ruts DC, they cheer on all the Freedom Fighter's seeking to make sure everyone gets fed and has a place to sleep, despite the worst efforts of governments and our billionaire rulers.
One Shot is all you will need of this musical magic to make sure you agree it's worth shooting the evil idiots in the back, if we can get things working for the masses, rather than the half a percent, so stop living in fear and join the fight to get a more even share. The outro could have been lifted from The Who.
Planet Of Pain careens out the speakers driven by the sax and hefty drumming, for this raging anthem for all the pain we go through to live a halfway decent life. Jezebel is full of pleading for one more chance to be yours, even if you've got a one-way ticket to hell, you were still mind blowing, the guitars stutter and stagger in places before the central riff drives everything on, with the sing along cries of Jezebel ready to be chanted by the band's loyal fans.
Spanner In The Works is a lolloping ska punk tune to skank along too, while they encourage us all to take control of our own destinies and tell the idiots who want us to follow orders and be good mute sheep to go screw themselves, let us all get on with having a good time. Some good effects in the dub section that seem to be culled from the sounds popular at Randy's studio in the 70's.
God Knows even if he never bothers to give us his advice, so you can be standing in your only suit and he won't care if you can make a comeback or not, Tony's guitar goes all Mott and glammy while they try to get God to not walk away from the fray.
Candy Star is a dark tale of a runaway who gets into loads of trouble while she is trying to find her feet in the big bad city, is there anything that can be done to help save Candy Star from the fate that life seems to have dealt her.
The album closes with Kicking The Can that sounds like they have set up outside a Mexican cantina, with a cheroot smoking accordion player staring them out, for this dark tale of heartbreak and the struggle to crawl out of the gutter once more. They want to get you shooting for the stars, rather than avoiding the help you need, by Kicking The Can Down the road, to where that trumpet player can float a few notes over you to help direct you in the right direction finally.
Find out more at https://store.bombermusic.com/products/witchdoktors-izzatso-vinyl-lp https://witchdoktors.bandcamp.com/album/izzatso https://ingrv.es/izzatso-mth-x https://www.facebook.com/witchdoktors
