Category:
Rock / Folk

Try if you like:
Flogging Molly, Larry And His Flask, Mumford & Sons

One of the hottest commodities of modern rock right now is a Folk Rock blend. Hailing from the U.K., Barricades Rise, has that sound. Up beat and colorful, while I will say the phenomenal extra untangible seems to be missing, this album has terrific melodies and tempos.

For a wide variety of vocal and harmonic range, one needs to head straight for "If You Were Here". Starting out the record, comes soft and slow with a vocal harmony and then an explosively soft guitar chord kicks in.  The chorus is commanding and confident and leaves a bit of a stamp in your head, while the bridge guitar is fairly impressive and quick witted.

While most tracks here are of high temp variety, a few Songs like track seven "Great White North" are much more deliberate and clear acoustic brand of folk, almost teasingly. Following in its footsteps is the closer, "Just For Tonight", where its a slow ballad, and its more evident than ever, 

There are quite a few tracks, that hang slightly on tones that seem familar, but have a signature of their own. Track five "Nod & Smile" has an outro that brings the song to a wild ride ending, while the following track six, "when We Were Young" has a bevy of transitions and an almost familiar chorus hook.  Another track that has some hooks that may seem familiar would be ten, "Roundabouts" as the chorus bleeds "Oh LaLala"...

 

Probably the most tempting track is "Run".  I cant put my finger on it, the range of Jonathan Coates journeys from Meatloaf to Dave Kings (Flogging Molly). Add in a terrific piano bridge and an explosive melodic closing and this is one of the strongest and most memorable tracks. 

 

Though most songs have the same high-paced tempo, not one song is a weak link.  All I Have Here is a great album for gathering, roadtrips or just crashing a book.