Album Review: Tracer - El Pistolero

El Pistolero marks the third recording for world touring Aussies Tracer, a band dedicated to writing no-nonsense power-chord driven rock that screams out to be listened to in an inebriated state.

Having garnered attention for a style of music that doesn't exactly ask much of its audience, Tracer have astoundingly found international success, including a Classic Rock gong in the UK late last year, with riffs that sound like they were written in five minutes and recorded in ten.

This isn't to say this album has no merit, as rock of this ilk was never meant to be taken so cerebrally. Opener El Pistolero begins rather awkwardly, but second track, Lady Killer has a great hooky chorus featuring a vocal melody used to great effect. The band's influences are splattered throughout the album, with Dirty Little Secret smacking of Queens Of The Stone Age, with its swinging drumbeat and pumping chorus, while Dead Garden may well have been sung by Chris Cornell on an off day.

Scream In Silence is another standout, possessing a swagger that demands it be played at full blast from a speeding muscle car. Bizarrely, though, somebody thought that Eastern-sounding guitars and strings would be a good idea to open Hangman. Another lowlight comes in the form of the Spanish sounding Ballad Of Pistolero, neither a good example of Latin guitar finger-picking, nor a good Western take on that style.

Ultimately, this LP reveals a band in chrysalis. Hopefully Tracer will be encouraged to blossom into a finer tuned and more individual unit than they currently are, which in today's musical climate would unfortunately be a rarity.