by Martin Popoff
The Want - Greatest Hits Volume 5
(Southern Lord)Both really welcome and amusing, The Want are carefully meticulously sloppy dinosaur rockers, recreating the sound of classic '70s rock, done with a subtle twist of script that finds them leaning less toward Sabbath than II-era Zeppelin, Mountain, early Bad Company (or middle Free), hard James Gang, maybe poetically the spirit of Cream, and maybe behind the times latecomers to hard rock like Moxy. They even record in their cups, missing Bonham's sound just by a bit, but still finding the fat of those who tried to copy said plop back in '73 and '74. The songs, well, again it's a groovy time travel Òwhat ifÓ, The Want basically assembling a batch that would be a long-lost lauded collectible missing link to metal had it actually come out in '72 (and note: it is as eventful, powerful, modestly note-dense as a '72 classic, well beyond the capabilities of anything earlier). They even guitar solo without rhythm backing. Man, it's all here, including a vocalist in Ken Leer who copies Plant only to the extent a contemporary might, that is, only a shade, lest he be ridiculed next to this current, active meteoric singer. But of course, what The Want can do is work with their 20/20 hindsight. So what you get is an imagined set of the very heaviest metal song styles from accidentally heavy bands plying their trade in the early to mid-'70s: perhaps a whole record of Saturday Night Special's. www.southernlord.com
Rating 8