Vinyl Review: "They Made Her A Criminal" by The Transgressors

They Made Her A Criminal

Let's talk album art, tracklists, and all such manner of things like that.

In the old days, when we all went to record stores, how many of us never purchased a CD, cassette, or LP just based on bitchin' cover art?

I know that I did at least 400 times....that was if they didn't have anything I was looking for that week.

My first taste of Black Metal came from purchasing a CD with a cool painting on the front. Don't ask me what it was though, as that was 1998 and this is 2019.

I also didn't know it was Black Metal, that black metal was a thing, or what that thing I'd never heard of sounded like.

So, long story short, there was a box sent to me featuring a goodly number of things and such. This album was in that box. There were no requests to speak of about reviews, but hey, who doesn't like hearing about kick ass music...

Sure, it's a little bit older than yesterday's album, but if you've not heard about it, it's new to you, just like it was for me.

So, it's time to unpack this stuff.

Let's presume that's a Cevrolet Chamaro... It's what, mid-60's? The woman leaning up against it is smoking a cigarette.

It's a striking cover to me. Perhaps it's all the White Zombie and John 5 records I listen to where they throwback to these days, but it made me very  nostalgic for something. Interestingly enough, it made me nostalgic for being a younger in the 80's watching movies about the 60's and 70's...

Probably not what they were shooting for.

It's biggest success though? This cover made me want to hear what was going on in the grooves of this record. I had to hear it.

In This Modern World, maybe there's not enough attention paid to what's first going to draw our eyes to buying your music....but this wasn't the case here.

Skimming the tracks...The Day Bobby Fuller died, They Made Her A Criminal, You're Running Wild, I Don't Care About Leroy, Maddox Creek...

Is this a concept record? Are they telling a narrative story? Honestly, I still don't quite have that answer. I mean, if you didn't know that Coheed and Cambria were telling a story before you listened to it...it wouldn't be so readily evident now would it?

But the fact that they have a cast rather than band members...perhaps they're doing what Styx did, but it's hard to put my finger on it.

What's easy to put my finger on?

This is a kick ass record full of rocking throwback tracks. If you're of the mind that the distortion pedal was the death of music as we know it, well, The Transgressors have a whole record full of tracks that don't have one on there.

It has that Yardbirds sound. The guitars are sharp and slightly wrong to my ear. (I'm used to gain or no gain, but not this almost there and almost not there gain....)

Anyone who grew up a generation before me would be well used to this kind of guitar sound. The melodic vocals march in sync with those guitar strains.

Then there's the rhythm section I'd die to kill for. When those two gents are added into the mix, this album goes from something to throw on the turntable into something special to tell all your friends about.

Check it out. You'll be glad you did.

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