25. March 2025
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Media Review

The Record Company – Play Loud

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

The Record Company - Play Loud

The Record Company - Play Loud
4.5

Rating

 4.5/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very variable sound
  • Good songs, very entertaining album

Play Loud is the third album of a Californian band, which is simply naming themselves The Record Company. Thereby, the some ten years lasting project is not unknown at all – their chronic even includes a Grammy Award nomination. Time of have a listen to this 8th October 2021 release.

 

The Record Company – About The Artist

The Record Company are a rock band from Los Angeles. Their music is majorly moving towards rock’n’roll and blues rock. They are active since 2011 and still operate in the same line up. Chris Vol is the guitarist and lead singer of the band, Alex Stiff plays the bass and Marc Cazola is the drummer. In February 2016, the band released their debut album. Give It Back to You had some quite nice chart placements, including peaking fifth in the US Heat album charts. The lead single Off The Ground topped the US AAA Charts and has over two million streams on YouTube only. The key success of this album, however, was being nominated for a Grammy Award as the Best Contemporary Blues Album. The following album All of This Life even made it to the overall US album charts. The key single was Life to Fix, which again had some remarkable placements in genre charts.

 

The Record Company – Play Loud – Track by Track

The twelve song album lasts 51 minutes.

1. Never Leave You

Alex Stiff is definitely the leading artist in this opening track. His bass grooves are just cool and unresistable. The song still feels rather pop-ish, but thus also easily stays in your head. Promising beginning.

2. How High

The second song has more rock touch as well as more blues sounds. The song is a bit of looping its main theme too much in my point of view – but again, there is a very catching and entertaining bit in the band’s music. Nice.

3. Gotta Be Movin’

Gotta Be Movin’ is one of my favorites. The track comes with the groove of the songs before, but feels very timeless, when you listen to the stomping rhythm. People would have loved it in the 1970’s, 1980’s as well as today. The distorted guitar riffs almost create an alt-rock spirit.

4. Live As One

Blues, rock, piano, guitars, a decent speed, a vocal performance made for the big stages – Live As One got it all! The Record Company sound like one of the really big rock acts in here, but still also have their very own style. All that I wanted to say // we gotta live as one – a must-sing-a-long on their future shows.

5. Out Of My Head

The fifth song comes with stronger blues vibes and thereby enjoys a contrast between rather loud sections and low-volume episodes. Finally it is a song which is driven by the magic guitar-playing hands of Chris Vol – and his vocals. Cool.

6. Forever

This song is a mixture of the stomping rhythm you know from a song before and a chorus, which could be a Beatles track (on a night they want to rock their fans a bit harder). Powerful archaic – but also harmonic. Cool one.

7. Get Up And Dance!

The song title is just what the song is alike. The song is a nice rocker, but it has a blues and Americana touch. Made to move to the music – hard to say no to it. Most fun track on the album, indeed.

8. Paradise

The third song on the album, which is already known by the fans, is this epic six minute piece of music. The song travels through different styles and moods, but keeps its main groove in the background for almost the whole time. Nice one – even though I feel it is a bit too long.

9. Awake

Awake is one of my favorite songs of the album. This may also be as the slightly dark and urban country rock style is quite in my musical comfort zone. Very rich arrangement, which creates a lot of power. Good!

10. Lady Lila

The tenth song adds a very different flavor to the full dozen of songs: Lady Lila is a soul ballad with a lot of rock. I especially like how the screaming guitar riffs almost crack down and turn into very melodic elements. Very laid back song.

11. Midnight Moon

Comfort zone song: if you like blues rock with a traditional touch, there is absolutely no chance you don’t like Midnight Moon. Very nice groovy rocker, which is just a good bunch of fun to listen.

12. Ain’t Going Home

The album closes with a rock song, which is again just making you smile while listening. Ain’t Going Home almost has the drive of a surf rock song – a bit of traditional, but just a good one for the good mood. Hard to go on to the next album after this finish. Put these guys on repeat!

 

The Record Company – Play Loud – Spotify

Here is Play Loud on Spotify:

 

The Record Company – Play Loud – My View

These three guys do a lot of things right: Play Loud offers some rather traditional tracks and some modern ones, they have party rock as well as some darker mood in there as well. They use their skills – and that leads them straight into a really good listen. Play Loud is a good choice for a wide range of musical listeners. I definitely enjoyed their way of groovy rock music.

 

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