Cross Elvis Costello and Tom Petty with some Neil Young and you get Carlos Oliver from The Pauls, a pop group from Madrid, Spain. As a band, The Pauls compare with The Wallflowers or The Black Crows a bit and play with a gritty American 70’s type of sound. On some songs the melodies are great, like “Fingers through your hair and rock and roll” or “Can’t Shine Tonight.” Other songs it sounds like Oliver is channeling a stoned Bob Dylan playing with Steely Dan in songs like “The Princess of the Moon.” Lots of nice guitar work with organ, horn and harmonica flourishes on plenty of songs that make for an enjoyable album. Having heard earlier albums, this one is a bit more rock and less pop, but it suits the band better. Once in a while, the songs drift into lyrical incoherent sounds like in “Too hot for spring” but at other times it all falls in place, like on “Wicked Man Blues.” “Some like of love” has a little bit of a Lenny Kravitz feel and that’s good too. The album has a spontaneous “live” feeling, complete with occassional feedback and studio noises and this gives the album some of it’s charm. Check it out.
The Pauls Website | Not Lame | Kool Kat | My Space
Listen to “Wicked Man Blues”
Listen to “Miss Tokyo”