Much of Lee Aaron’s ‘Fire And Gasoline’ is uptempo quirky pop rock. A good comparison would be Swedish babe Erika from her 90’s bubblegum neon pop era, or perhaps even Robin Beck at her quirkiest.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Lee Aaron
ALBUM: Fire And Gasoline
LABEL: Big Sister Records
SERIAL: 5524318
YEAR: 2016
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
LINEUP: Lee Aaron – vocals * Sean Kelly – guitars * Dave Reimer – bass * John Cody – drums
TRACK LISTING:01 Tom Boy * 02 Fire And Gasoline * 03 Wanna Be * 04 Bittersweet * 05 Popular * 06 50 Miles * 07 Bad Boyfriend * 08 Heart Fix * 09 Nothing Says Everything * 10 If You Don’t Love Me Anymore * 11 Find The Love
RATING: 85/100
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
I must be one of thousands of fans of Lee Aaron as we welcome her back to the rock fold. In the last decade or so, she’s been doing her jazz thing, plus being a soccer mom, but she’s never really been out of the spotlight, because we simply won’t let her!
In readiness for her rock album return, she and her band appeared at the recent 2015 Cannafest gig in Grand Forks, BC alongside many of the nation’s favorites, including Streetheart, Harlequin, Prism and a few others.
Much of ‘Fire And Gasoline’ is uptempo quirky pop rock. A good comparison would be Swedish babe Erika, from her 90’s bubblegum neon pop era, or perhaps even Robin Beck at her quirkiest. There’s no prime-time AOR like she delivered on her 1987 album, far from it. Or even metal, say from the ‘Metal Queen’ era. That was another lifetime ago.
The Songs
Kicking it off is ‘Tom Boy’, with it’s words spoken intro and narrative, all providing a new audio experience for long time supporters of Lee Aaron. The video features Lee’s daughter and a whole bunch of other school friends gamming it up on camera. Next up is the title track ‘Fire And Gasoline’, you gotta love the raw nature of the song plus the clever lyrics which shine through at the start.
My favourite track so far is a very energetic ‘Wanna Be’. The woman in the story sounds like the girlfriend from hell, or possibly the future girlfriend from hell because she’s still only friends with the guy apparently.. lol. Great fun song, nonetheless. ‘Bittersweet’ could be construed as a tale of love lost, with one foot in the past thinking about old memories, while having the other foot firmly entrenched in the present and moving on with life.
I struggled through the next two songs, ‘Popular’ proved to be anything but, while ’50 Mile’ kept the metronome at snails pace, but the fiery guitar solo towards the end was pretty good. The short and snappy pop rocker ‘Bad Boyfriend’ is the sort of song where Lee excels in 2016. It’s like hearing The Runaways all over again. ‘Nothing Says Everything’ is the album’s melancholy ballad. It didn’t quite work for me.
Much better is the 80’s sounding power pop ‘If You Don’t Love Me Anymore’. Honestly, it sounds like something from the skinny tie era. The closing tune ‘Find The Love’, is a very deep lyrical affair. It’s quite somber, and the lyrics quite personal. It’s about the one thing that holds everything together through good times and bad.
In Summary
There’s a lot to like with the material on ‘Fire And Gasoline’. A few tracks land right in the middle of that high energy power pop type of sound, which I personally think is a great fit for Lee. I also like the tight and crisp production of the album, which keeps it confined to more of a room based sound, rather than something hall-like and airy. Overall, a really good little album and great to see Lee Aaron back.
Video
Tom Boy
Wanna Be
Fire And Gasoline
