‘Kids these days’ sings Dee Radke in opening track ‘Dark Black Makeup’ as he scathes at young people wasting their potential but through the lens of a cosmic being who decides to destroy the world. This is certainly something that cannot tar the Radkey brush. These young boys are taking the music world by storm with their debut album of the same name. Thrown from sleepy St. Joe’s to the bright lights of Kansas City, these boys are here to rock your face off and wake you from your everyday slumber. Dee’s delicious and dulcet tones have been compared to The Ramones and Glenn Danzig, not your everyday comparison, and pressure to produce is being knocked out of the park with stellar live performances, down to earth interviews and most importantly, killer but radio friendly tunes.
Brought up on computer games, movies, comics and their Dad’s music collection, as well as being home schooled has brought the brothers closer together, and the synergy can be felt in every track on this album. ‘Romance Dawn’ is no exception. The song builds slowly before a furious and energetic ‘hey, hey now’ leads into a immense freak out and a time change which ramps up the energy of the song. These boys are not messing around, this song makes you want to dance Fifties style and mosh at the same time. It is pure and simple, but oh so effective.
‘Love Spills’ starts with a dreamy guitar section that floats over you like early morning sunshine rays, before Dee’s rich baritone picks you up by the breaches. There is a BRMC feel to some of their beats, the backing vocals of Isaiah beautifully offsetting the deeper end of his brother, the guitar solo carrying you high into the sky, as the catchy chorus streams back in.
‘Best Friends’ hears Dee sounding Morrissey like, as he sings the catchy ‘I’m feeling groovy’ as is anyone that listens to this album. It is an album full of pure grooves and licks, all unique and raw, but with a polished finish; Radkey pull it off with consummate ease. ‘Oh thank God I found you’ indeed.
‘Song Of Solomon’ is a song about a lazy dropout rockstar, seemingly what they are not, while “Evil Doer’ transports you back to the fantastical as an evil genius kills everyone as well as his nemesis, but is tortured by the voices of the dead. The album content is madness personified, but also pleasantly not at all arrogant and not in the slightest self indulgent, which is refreshing and will win them plaudits for just having fun and writing good ol’ Rock and Roll tunes.
The album sees them crawling up the mantle of bands like QOTSA and The Foo’s, them declaring ‘We’re aiming to get to that point’, their confidence warranted and although they won’t be headlining Glasto or selling out Wembley anytime soon, there is enough promise in this album to mark them down as one’s to watch.