I resent. I often resent.
It used to be said: I am outraged. Being outraged is out of fashion: politics, television, fines, work, social media, banks, Santanchè don’t outrage anyone, or almost. Every evening around nine, on Rai1 (which I pay for, we pay for), I happen to watch for a few minutes the excited milfs in the studio shouting because the box they just opened contains 10 euros and not the hundreds of thousands that remain in play, while the Ride of the Valkyries blasts, everyone present applauds and I resent. In this case, also for Wagner, who cannot but certainly would.
And here I resent these London Thunder: a rock blues band of the Madonna, there are none better. They had thrown in the towel at the end of the last century, abandoned by their last record label: there was no way around it, they started again, they made their own label, shelved the remaining dreams of glory and proceed (proceeded?... more on that later) low-profile, releasing an album every two years. All of them excellent. This one, from 2022 and the latest in the series, might be their best, and it's the fourteenth!
The band leader Luke Morley is a "constructed" musician, not a natural. Lacking innate talent, let alone genius, he remarkably set out to learn to play well, compose better, write meaningful lyrics, arrange effectively, produce with vigor drawing inspiration from all that has shaped his taste and sense of "right" in music, seeking not originality but quality, drive, and passion. He does almost everything, composes and sets the line; the other four follow, collaborate, help, complete him with their own talents (especially the drummer, the best substitute for John Bonham I know).
Morley is one of many who in the seventies, as a kid, absorbed rock like a sponge from the radio, from the stereo, from friends, and with each listen daydreamed of that world, that craft, that skill, that success he actually managed to achieve. At a good level, even if not the highest, but this is others’ deficiency, certainly not mine. I see him as a brother… head down and pedal, with passion and consistency, writing and playing only what he likes while the "fashions" and "trends" more cool whiz around him, pass him by, vanish (hopefully). Things that make you resent, because we are not so Buddhist and the lack of meritocracy annoys.
And so he resents, like me, this Luke Morley leader of the Thunder, on their latest albums but this one in particular. Starting with the cover: two desperate people taking selfies. I can’t stand them either, I am proudly still virgin in that regard and surely will remain so. The lyrics of several songs on the album, simple and sharp, lash out against social media, influencers (they can go to hell), autotune, the soulless crap music that has always existed but has now risen to an unsustainable percentage.
The title, Dopamine, precisely allegorizes the media drug that pervades our everyday life, which to me, being older, just makes me resent, but for today’s youngsters undermines intellectual and character growth. This they sing, the Thunder, while they rock and roll greatly with a good variety of styles and inspiration.
A prime example is the sweet, relaxed, and bitter "Is Anybody Out There?", just voice and piano, making an impression since it comes from a hard rock blues group that shows they still have much to say, think, reflect and act to stay alive.
Let’s hope! But things look grim... the singer Danny Bowes accidentally and seriously injured his head shortly after the release of this album. The bandmates are waiting for him to fully recover and in the meantime, have scattered into other groups (Tyketto, Quireboys). It looks bad! This double LP/single CD could also be the last from Thunder. Never a joy.
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