Album Review: Cut Loose

The Flaming Mudcats‘ Cut Loose celebrates the band’s tenth anniversary in fine style. This is a solid, rocking blues album from a well-established and well-loved kiwi act. The album’s 12 tracks showcase the vocal and songwriting talents of Craig Bracken with the material tightly and cleanly delivered by the band’s four core members joined by guest artists.

Songs canvas familiar topics such as unrequited love and women misplacing their affections, while also giving the nod to hardworking regular people trying to make a living to support their families and struggling to pay their bills.

The album’s clean, crisp production serves the material well. I particularly enjoyed Craig Bracken’s harmonica playing and the lead guitar on tracks such as Moving to the Country and Show Me Some Love.

The album’s cover tracks were tastefully executed. The band’s cover of J West’s Rooster Blues was really enjoyable, but it was their utterly gorgeous version of Sneakin Around by JM Robinson featuring Louis Bernstone on keyboard and Doug Bygrave on guitar that was the stand out track for me.

All in all, Cut Loose is a well-executed and fun album from a band that’s made a well-deserved name for itself as a live act. The live vibe was evident throughout this album and I could well imagine the band bringing the house down with this material. A high calibre outing.