Available at Amazon Japan
| The Willard - The Legend Of Silver Guns |
| Ah,
the 80s. People tend to remember the relatively recent past in terms of
its mistakes, especially its popular culture, and the 80s have a lot to
answer for. It's easy to forget, however, that there was a lot of
worthwhile stuff happening back then, if you looked past the hideous
fashion sense (even at the time, as much as people admire the Cure now,
all I remember as a young High Schooler in 1986 is everyone making fun
of Robert Smith's hair.) Punk was maturing and splintering,
concentrating and codifying itself on one hand (hardcore, Oi, etc.) and
giving good old fashioned pop music a much needed shot in the arm on
the other (Siouxsie and the Banshees, the aforementioned Cure.) One of the more curious developments came from what had been the first punk band ever to record, The Damned. Having weathered the loss of their main songwriter, they had gone on to take punk's original irreverence and steer it into increasingly theatrical directions, creating a kind of ironically bright haunted house pop rock that would've been goth if it wasn't so whimsical. This is where The Willard come in: taking The Damned's particular brand of good natured creepiness as their starting point, they created an immediately accessible sound that owes a clear debt to that band's "Phantasmagoria" and graft it to stadium ready rock in ways that scream "the 80s" while being so immediate and catchy that accusations of datedness don't really stick. Overemphasizing the Vanian/Scabies/Sensible influence would be a mistake, but it is unavoidable: "Waiting For My Phantom Jeremy" is a rather shameless rewrite of "Grimly Fiendish," la-la backing vocals and all. Bright harpsichords and vampric vocal flourishes are all over the place, and vocalist Jun even sports a white streak in his hair. OK, now that The Damned influence has been acknowledged, it's time to get past it, because "The Legend Of Silver Guns" is a damned (heh) sight better than anything the UK group released from that period, bursting with delirious momentum and an adrenaline soaked vitality. "Return In Triumph" alone would make TLOSG a must have. It's the very essence of "rousing," an anthemic, flag waving guitar riff matched by a, well, triumphant chorus. You can practically hear Jun shouting "charge!" from atop his steed, laughing in elation and victory. "Silly Games" opens with a chiming riff that's utterly huge, matched in its towering power only by the elated brass of its verses and it's soaring chorus. "Smart Escape Forever (With Silver Guns)" is an outstanding convertible song, seemingly made for blasting down the freeway with the sun shining. The idea of Summertime anthems being written by a bunch of goth guys who look to be permanently clad in leather is no small irony, but one which is oddly irrelevant. The Willard are a sugar high, not a soundtrack for gloomy afternoons, and it's that which causes them to rise above their (often obvious) influences. At this point, I have to admit to being a bit stumped about The Willard's history, or subsequent fate. Their official site is sparse, to say the least, and while they appear to still play live from time to time, there's precious little available in the way of information. Their CDs have almost nothing (which is unusual indeed for Japan,) and while live footage clearly shows they were hugely successful, there just doesn't seem to be much on the net, fan page or otherwise. Still, "The Legend Of Silver Guns" is highly recommended, the sort of record they just don't make anymore. |