Water Rats
Kings Cross, London
30/06/09
Imagine a love-in between Neil Young, My Morning Jacket and Kasabian; not a pleasant thought but the resulting offspring may well sound a lot like Alberta Cross.
Those familiar with their 2007 ep, The Heartbreaker and the Thief, may well be puzzled by the Kasabian reference, but certainly more than one of the new songs hint at their “new direction”.
On a ludicrously hot Tuesday evening we all packed into the back room at the Water Rats as the band took to the stage, the five piece concentrated mainly on the forthcoming new album, Broken Side of Time, with a sprinkling of old favourites for the faithful, gracefully easing in and out of each song with the help of frontman, Petter Ericson Stakee’s, beautiful, soulful, soaring vocals.
The stripped down feel of the older songs is now replaced with beefier wall of sound courtesy of second guitarist Sam Kearney adding extra weight and dimension to the songs, though fans of their debut ep’s more country feel may find their new sound not so appealing, it’s certainly a forward progression that I’m sure will be embraced by a wider audience.
Opening with Ramblin Home, a pure Alberta Cross gem, complete with sky rocket chorus, and closing with forthcoming new single ATX, the pace never drops until the encore when Stakke and bassist Terry Wolfers came back to finish with an acoustic version of the old fave Lucy Rider.
The new album is not scheduled for release until September this year, but if you can’t wait until then, go to, www.myspace.com/albertcross, I know I can’t!
Nelson Bibb