Lipz – ‘Changing The Melody’

(Frontiers Records)

With faces full of excessive face paint alongside flamboyant clothing you’d judge Lipz as full-on Sleaze or Glam before you’ve even listened to a note. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover is certainly true here, while there are obviously elements of Glam to their songwriting it’s certainly not how I’d describe their overall sound. Lipz do push their Glam Rock energy but they come across to me as a Melodic Hard Rock band sonically, perhaps appealing just as much to Bon Jovi fans as Kiss ones.

Lipz are a band with stadium rock sized choruses, it seems the bigger the better with these guys. They deliver these songs with an energy that encourages crowd participation – whether that’s you dancing in your bedroom alone or sweating alongside thousands in an arena.

The slick guitar riffs are a real selling point for me, full of energy, always melodic and hook laden. Lipz have a silky-smooth sound that gets under your skin, there’s no jagged edges with these guys and their potent melodic sound is commercial and undeniably infectious. I love their heavy use of vocal harmonies – all those “Woooah’s” and “Hey’s” hook me in every time. I found ‘Changing The Melody’ totally engaging from my initial listen, I’ll be honest if the first spin doesn’t grab your attention, then these guys probably won’t rub you the right way ever.

On my first spin I would have said Lipz have their song-writing firmly in the Eighties. After further listens though I noticed that there are modern touches and stuff that adds a fresher flourish to their songs. This was probably most noticeable on the second half of the album on tracks like ‘Freak’ and ‘Secret Lover’. It’s a solid album but I tended to favour the instant gratification of ‘Bye Bye Beautiful’ and ‘Changing The Melody’. I also have a huge soft spot for the ballad ‘I Would Die For You’ and its powerful and engaging chorus.

‘Changing The Melody’ is highly commercial and radio friendly to the max, packed with an array of potential singles. I can see Lipz appealing to fans of H.E.A.T, Danger Danger, Trixter, Firehouse and of course a multitude of late Eighties commercial rock acts. It’s a classy record which is well worth checking out and I highly recommended anyone who is a fan of the aforementioned bands giving this one a peek. If you find yourself waking up in full face paint afterwards though don’t say you haven’t been warned, this one is quite addictive!

8/10

Essential Track - 'Bye Bye Beautiful'

Review by Woody