TAINTED LADY – How The Mighty Have Fallen (Album Review)

Holy Cow, there is a lot of new music out there. Then you realize that even though we are in the U.S. there is a ton of new music in other countries too. How do you consume it all? How do you know what to listen to and what to pass on? We aren’t even sure that in the heyday of music if the record companies were really peddling the best of the best or just what they thought would sell. Therefore, websites like Decibel Geek are so important. If you happen to align your tastes to one of our staff writers, you can navigate through all the muck and get to what you want to listen to.

How The Mighty Have Fallen by Tainted Lady (Debut album, Released 5/26/2017, Mighty Music)

Produced by: Soren Andersen

Hailing from Denmark, the 5 youngsters: Michael Catton (vocals), Jonatan Shoshan (guitar), Anders Frank (guitar), Daniel Bach (bass) and Fred Over (drums) are a hard-driving, energetic band. The songwriting has a 70’s/80’s flavor that reminds me of Skid Row and Rival Sons.

The opening track “The Witness” has a haunting beautiful 27 second vocal but the song is a complete waste. Either this should’ve been a full song or it should at least connect better with the 2^nd track. For this being a debut album, I would’ve been more conventional out of the gate. In my opinion, if you want listeners to choose you over all the other music that is out there, you must knock them out of their chair with the 1^st song.

“Set us Free” and “Open Minded” are up-tempo kickin’ rock tunes. You can immediately hear the John Corabi and Sebastian Bach in Catton’s voice. The production has a live feel. These two songs deliver a pointed message regarding how screwed up the current state of the music business is. This message is a bit odd from a new band. How can you just be starting out but tell the music business to f**k off? Although, Tainted Lady wants to be “Rebel Rock” … And have the talent to pull it off, the message didn’t land with credibility. I just don’t think that new bands have enough street cred to basically conduct speeches (in the middle of “Set Us Free”) about this topic. Save this stuff for when you have a loyal following and have shown everyone that you can make it without record company sharks getting involved.

On the other hand, “Ampburner” absolutely rocks! Catchy chorus with serious attitude, this should’ve been the album opener. Include “Song of Reckoning” with the cool dual guitars, “On the Loose” with the incredible vocal harmonies, “Sons of Guns” with the catchy melody and perfect song arrangement and “Last of Our Kind” as the perfect album closer, the songs show that Tainted Lady has some amazing songwriting skills. Whoever arranged the songs, especially the music and backing vocals did an incredible job. Bravo!

“Loverman” is the token sleaze rocker on the record. It’s almost as if someone realized that you originally got into music to get girls to take notice.

My favorite song on the album is “The Best Days”. Wow! What a ballad! If you heard this song 1^st, there is no way you would believe that Tainted Lady is a new band. Cotton also gets an opportunity to show his incredible vocal range. Super polished perfection.

In closing, the album absolutely has some highlights. These guys are immensely talented but just haven’t quite figured out who they want to be long-term. I would say that Tainted Lady is at their best when they are just making music vs. being concentrated on being “Rebel Rock”. Give this band a try. Start with “Ampburner” and “The Best Days” to get a good feel for who they are.

Thanks for reading. Pooni out!

Buy: Tainted Lady