Massive Wagons – 'House Of Noise' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. In It Together

2. Bangin In Your Stereo

3. House Of Noise

4. Freak City

5. Hero

6. Professional Creep

7. Pressure

8. The Curry Song

9. Glorious

10. Sad Sad Song

11. Hallescrewya

12. Matter Of Time

Massive Wagons are a band on the rise. I first encountered them as a support act in 2016, where I was so impressed I bought their latest album of the time “Welcome To The World” from the Merch table and listened to it incessantly. Not long after this, they signed with Earache, and released the hugely popular “Full Nelson” album in 2018, and now they have followed it up with this slab of Rock and Roll. For those of you who haven’t listened to them, imagine a modern day Status Quo fronted by a high-voiced bearded maniac, and you’ve got a perfect idea of the high-energy Rock that Massive Wagons deliver on a regular basis.

This album comes out of the gates full whack with “In It Together”, an absolute gem of a song that perfectly highlights the Massive Wagons experience in four tight minutes. A brilliant energy, fantastic riffs and a chorus that is utterly singable really drives home how polished they have become, and I was sure that this album was going to absolutely blow me away.

Sadly, this didn’t last, as the second track “Bangin In Your Stereo” was a real disappointment to me – it just felt like an absolute one-note filler song. And I know that some may love it, but I really felt it derailed the momentum of this album for me, which is a real shame when you are just two songs in. “House Of Noise” is track three, and is much better, and is followed by “Freak City”, which is also pretty good.

And then (for me anyway, I know that taste is subjective), we hit another low point. “Hero” is a song that feels like it’s about to break into a better song any moment, but never really gets there, meandering around – it’s the second longest track on the album, and you can feel every minute of the 6:02 it lasts for.

And the whole album goes on like this – two or three great tunes, followed by a nosedive into something that just feels like filler for me – tracks that just don’t have the same impact than the rest of the album.

I feel really bad saying this, because I think that the band are great and have exactly the right amount of insanity, cynicism and kick-ass riffs for this strange world in which we currently live, and it’s a shame that a small handful of songs that are scattered throughout the album cause such a jarring listening experience.

The second half of the album is more consistent than the first as far as I am concerned, with standout tracks like “Pressure” and “Sad Sad Song” showcasing the variety that the band are able to include with every release, but just as I thought the curse had been broken, we reached the final track “Matter Of Time”, and my enthusiasm ground to a halt once again.

Overall, there is much to recommend in this album – some of which will be absolute future classics I am sure – “In It Together”, “House Of Noise”, “Pressure”, “The Curry Song”, “Sad Sad Song” are all tracks that are beautifully crafted, high quality slabs of perfect Rock’n’Roll, it’s just a shame that even with those high points, House Of Noise (the album) doesn’t quite match up to the Wagons last couple of studio offerings for me.