Lois - Guns of the Governor

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 22 / 2 / 2019

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Review

After the success of 'The Polperro Horse Bus Company', the critically acclaimed debut release from Nottingham's smooth funky 60's style foursome Lois, comes their second offering, the eagerly awaited 'Guns of the Governor'. This one comes with help from Andy Banfield of Superfly Recording Studios in Nottingham who engineered and mixed and also was involved in the production work too. Wrapped up in some seriously good artwork and photography, 'Guns of the Governor' comes with its own little booklet with credits and track listings on the back. This second offering carries on from the brilliance of 'The Polperro Horse Bus Company' with its raw rock and roll edges but leans a lot heavier this time on the band's ease of making the funk funkier. There are still twinges of the yelps and growls of the previous album such as on 'Monkey Girl', but the influence of the groove on tracks such as 'Who Can Help You Now?' is more predominant and rightly so. It's a state of bliss that Lois do so well. One minute they are blasting away in a hum of 60's surf and then getting down and dirty with the blues. Lois starts the new disc though in typical style with the infectious beat of 'Ballad of a Jezebel' which includes the funky bluesy guitar that rides its way through this tasty treat. 'She's My Girl' is an 80's surf style jaunt that would have been welcome in the likes of local nightclub Bowgies in its heyday, another string to the Lois bow. For me they do this so well even if they don't realise it. They then cruise into the Beatle-esque 'New Sun Rising' which morphs into psychedelia, before morphing once more into an anthemic sound with 'Please Just Let Me Know'which showcases front man John Selby letting it rip with his strong vocals . The title track is a funky Hammond style extravaganza which gives Lee Matysiak licence to pound his Hammond organ, and then the world stops for a short time as Selby drifts along with 'In Her Eye', Adie Maguire's percussion shuffling along behind before getting really funky with 'You Know She Does Me Wrong', another rock and roll/surf style outing. The Lois live sound kicks in next as Selby rasps out 'Vagabond Highway Blues'. If you have seen them live of late this is a raw treat. There is another change of pace again with another Beatles style offering in the wonderful 'She Won't Stay Very Long', once again making Selby a ruined man with no one to hold. The longest and penultimate number 'Off My Mind' is another psychedelic Lois. and the album is concluded with 'These are the Darkest Days I've Ever Known', a curious affair which closes the album in sedate style. This is a dark number and one that takes the band in another new direction, perhaps a taste of more wonderful things to come. Once again, the photography on this is fabulous. The front cover is superb, but the real gem is what's inside - a second helping of diverse Lois - which should keep fans satisfied until the next album. Bloody excellent!

Track Listing:-

1 Ballad of a Jezebel
2 She's My Girl
3 New Sun Rising (Magic Box)
4 Please Just Let Me Know
5 Guns of the Governor
6 In Her Eyes
7 You Know She Does Me Wrong
8 The Hour
9 Vagabond Highway Blues
10 She Won't Stay Very Long
11 Off My Mind
12 These are the Darkest Days I've Never Known

Band Links:-

http://www.loistheband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/loistheband
https://twitter.com/loistheband