Album Review: Thursday’s Child

Danny Rascal’s debut is a flamboyant, bombastic celebration of loud, Sunset Strip approved glam-tinged rock.

Thursday’s Child references mid-80’s heavy metal/pop through both the songs instrumentation and the recording mix, with gained guitars, scorching leads, glassy bass and punchy drums. This Town rips the album open with a nod to van Halen, preparing the listener for the retro-mix so they can fully enjoy the catchiness and jaw-dropping guitar stunts to follow. Second track Easy seems to be influenced by blues guitarists such as Stevie Ray Vaughn with a dive-bomb beginning to one of the album’s most heartfelt sounding guitar solos. “If there was something I could say,” Rascal sings in a gruff, emotional voice that sounds perfect for Billy Idol anthems at karaoke. “You decided it was all my fault,” he belts out in accents with his band, (comprised of himself playing all the instruments but the drums).

Tracks like Fade are indicative of his predominant style on the recording, seemingly influenced by Mötley Crüe. This song features a talk box and a great chorus: “No! Not gonna fade away … into my personal oblivion”. There is a constant catchiness here to many of the songs that isn’t too dissimilar from some of AC/DC’s best offerings. There is variety to be found, such as the contrast of Gisborne’s bass-driven, reggae swagger, against Justine’s complex song structure and time signature changes. Even Unfinished Business has gang vocals to add some experimental element.

Two stand out tracks are Kai Ti and Paper Cranes, the former starting with some innocent, cheery strumming which blossoms into a catchy headbanging rhythm. The song melts into a ballad, (another popular guilty-pleasure of the hair-metal scene), with Rascal celebrating or perhaps realizing ‘I’m in love!’. Unlike the majority of the songs, this ballad features a non-shred, tasteful solo, but Rascal can’t help himself and plays a stunning run of notes right at the end to remind and impress. These skills are more on display on the stunning, instrumental ‘Paper Cranes’ which is formed over a glassy bass riff. There’s a slow build with some ethereal guitar playing in the style of Steve Vai, followed by virtuosic shred, ending with a dissolving into digital noise.

All up, Danny Rascal’s latest release is what you’d expect from a performer who has played festivals and arenas featuring extreme sport activities: heavy hitting rock with impressive chops. What more can I say? It’s impressive, it’s entertaining and it rocks.