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SWEET “Full Circle”
SWEET “Full Circle”
By Theron Moore
SWEET have a new record out called ‘Full Circle’ which should be great news. Rock N roll fans should be rejoicing and screaming this from every mountain top all over the world. Hell, there should be parades in every city with floats and marching bands, but alas, I think the keyphrase up to this point is “should be”.
First, I’m a SWEET fan from way back. I love their music; that collision of glam and hard rock with a shot of proto-metal, it’s downright brilliant! After listening to the first 20 seconds of track one, “Circus” I went to YouTube and watched “Fox On The Run” and “No You Don’t” just to cleanse my palette and reassure myself this indeed is the same band. Well, kind of anyway. Founding member Andy Scott is last man standing at this point. Total respect to that man and the foundation he laid for hard rock and heavy metal.(Sorry, there’s no way I can look at him today and not burst out laughing—Dr. M)
Just to give you some background information on “Full Circle” the band began writing this album in 2019 but shelved it and released re-recorded versions of older songs under the title of “Isolation Boulevard.” I preferred that disc of non-original material over this collection of original songs by a pretty wide margin.
.From a sonic standpoint, there is NOTHING connecting any of the music on “Full Circle” with ANYTHING SWEET has ever recorded or played live in their career. EVER. I have no idea what I’m listening to on this album. I’m going to give you a brutal example of what I’m talking about. Imagine the worst kind of bad 80’s, poppy, sappy, commercial metal, the kind “Baywatch” would play when the lifeguards were doing training exercises on the beach or Hobie was having girl trouble. Now imagine the entire record is this way, so awful that even the music editors on “Baywatch” would’ve laughed out loud had they heard it. Listen to the song “Changes” and tell me otherwise.
I’m not discussing any of the songs on this record. I can’t. I can’t bring myself to take “Full Circle” seriously enough to do so. This music has nothing to do with the SWEET that I remember.
Thankfully though, their bio said this is their final studio album. On one hand, I’m OK with that. On the other, I wish the band had gone out kicking ass and taking names, the same way they came into the rock N roll world to begin with.
I don’t have a problem with a band changing their sound so long as it elevates them, makes them better, makes them fan-worthy.. “Full Circle” doesn’t do that. I’d call this a train wreck but that implies the train can be fixed and placed back in service again. I don’t know anyone talented enough to do that with this record.
0 / 5 stars
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