Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Review: The Ark - Prayer for the Weekend


Label: Roxy Recordings

Released: April 16, 2007

The Ark don't do a single original thing on Prayer for the Weekend, but how many bands really do? To understand a band like the Ark is to understand their influences. In their best moments they channel the likes of Queen, Sweet and T Rex. They have a huge arena-sized sound and all the necessary bombast to pull that off. Whether they're recreating the dance-infused rock of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" on the title track or the simultaneously silly and heartfelt teen anthem of Sweet's "Teenage Rampage" on "New Pollution," the Ark can can bring the best of big 70s rock into their tunes. Like their early glam influences, the Ark also successfully marries a big rock sound with candy-coated pop hooks and even the heavy hints of ELO's slick strings work well for them. Oddly enough, the Ark is at their best when they're completely over the top just like the early arena rock bands they emulate. At times, they rein themselves in and the more subdued approach hurts the album. More often though, they draw enough from the best of some of rock's most grandiose bands and package it together in a way that makes their revival pretty easy to buy into. Frankly, this is not typically my thing and yet I found myself engaged by Prayer for the Weekend rather than appalled by it.

Rating: 7/10

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4 Comments:

Blogger Metal Mark said...

This sounds like something I might be interested in.

8:47 AM  
Blogger taotechuck said...

Let's see. It's completely unoriginal, and it rehashes 70s arena rock. Sounds like a 7/10 to me.

Obviously, a first name isn't the only thing you share with Christgau.

10:28 AM  
Blogger bob_vinyl said...

Mark - I think you'd probably like it.

Chuck - I know what you're saying. It was a weird record for me, because in a sense it was everything that I hate and yet at the same time I really enjoyed it. I'm still not 100% sure how they pulled it off.

10:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love this band. I think their music is great!!

10:18 AM  

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