Lofty Reviews: Jamie Stanton – Flying Colours

Lofty gives his two cents on the debut Jamie Stanton EP Flying Colours

I think it’s fair to say that despite the almost overload of Irish bands and musicians that currently make up the Irish music scene there are very few old fashioned rock bands that would have been common place in the 80s. However Cobh man Jamie Stanton seems determined to fill that gap with his debut album “Flying Colours” an ambitious album that is unquestionably not trying to be hip or cool.

According to the PR blurb “Flying Colours” is a war album dealing with the pre and post arrays of war and its aftermath. The opening certainly recalls many a post-Civil War spaghetti western and wouldn’t be out of a place on the soundtracks of recent films from Quentin Tarantino such as Kill Bill, Django Unchained or the upcoming The Hateful Eight.

The album starts with a brief flamenco guitar number ‘Peligro’ before segueing into the electric guitar which kicks in on ‘Baldio’ with a chorus that recalls the title track from the 1966 western ‘Django’ with a sparky brass section to boot.

‘Destination Nowhere’ is a more straight forward rock number with Stanton finally unleashing his gravelly classic rock vocal and some power rock riffs.

Up next the lead track from the album ‘Livin’ It High’ is definitely the highlight of the album with great backing vocals and fantastic harmonica work which combines superbly with the driving drums, excellent riffs and a rousing chorus.

The next couple of tracks are reminiscent of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” (you can make up your own mind if that’s a good or a bad thing) but it does lend itself to being a little samey for a little while.

That vibe is broken by a short track ‘Natdia’ which seems to be some kind of Indian chant possibly a war dance chant given the theme of the record?

Then we have the album’s title track which is an interesting affair with its slightly processed vocals, it has a really nice edge to it with what could be a call to arms (think of Gun ’n’ Roses ‘Get in the Ring’ without the Axl Rose preening).

That starts a run of three tracks which sees the album come to a close on a high note with the anthemic ‘Coming Home’ providing a worthy footnote for the record.

Whatever you might say about Jamie Stanton efforts he is certainly ambitious in what he is striving for with “Flying Colours”. While the final output doesn’t quite achieve that ambition (to this listener’s ears anyway), it certainly shows enough quality moments to make me want to keep an eye out for what Stanton does next and to catch what is bound to be a powerful live experience.

Check out what is definitely a massive quality first video from Jamie:

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