Dan Sartain – 'Lives!' review
Dan Sartain is not of the modern world. His press shots have him in a natty blazer/brylcreem/horn-rimmed specs combo, cradling a vintage 50s guitar. His records are pure zombie-rockin’ voodoo retrorama, all twanging bass, surf guitar and rockabilly strut. Needless to say, Jack White digs this groovy cat, daddy-o, and so it is that this LP is co-produced by the White Stripe and frequently drips with the sexy sound of teenage rebellion long past.
However, when you work within such a vintage aesthetic, avoiding pastiche and irony is tough, and Lives! falls foul pretty regularly: songs like Bohemian Grove have an eyebrow arched so high that it feels as if Austin Powers is about to appear from behind the cardboard backdrop with a troupe of pneumatic dancers in cages. It’s a problem that leaves the LP as a whole disconcertingly self-aware and, paradoxically, very modern.
6/10)
