Year: 2025
Label: Voodoo Canapé

I quote UK act The Zipheads’ website for a description of their style: “The Zipheads play Rock’n’Roll infused with punk, taking influence from the founding fathers of the 1950s like Little Richard and Chuck Berry, via the punk and new wave heroes of the 70s such as The Clash and Elvis Costello, along the way encompassing surf, swing, soul, country, folk, ska and reggae as well as most other types of music you could care to imagine into the mix.”

Let’s simplify that a bit: psychobilly. That blend of musical influences and a slap bass mean one can justifiedly generalize just a bit, and call The Zipheads psychobilly. It’s one word, not a paragraph, and tells most people potentially interested in The Zipheads more than enough.

Of course, there’s psychobilly of many kinds. And it would be a pretty poor review, if we said “let’s not elaborate, let’s reduce it to a simple genre moniker.” So after simplifying, let’s elaborate.

There’s a slightly clumsy and awkward descriptor, punkabilly, which can be applied to The Zipheads. Why is it clumsy and awkward? Because inherently, punk is in psychobilly’s DNA. After all, that’s what the innovation of psychobilly originators such as The Meteors was: take rockabilly, infuse it with the snarl of punk, and evolve it from there.

But, I digress. Back to The Zipheads: their style of music is smack dab in the middle of what I’d say “punkabilly” is. There’s a slapping bass and some elements from rockabilly here and there, but overwhelmingly more, theirs is a sound with a lot of punk, particularly of a more pop oriented kind.

There’s something very British about these guys. To some extent, Rock ‘n’ Roll Renaissance reminds me of latter day Long Tall Texans, and a lot of the acts The Sharks legend Alan Wilson has put out on his Western Star label. In the same way, there’s a decidedly contemporary edge to the sound, particularly the guitar tone.

Qualitywise, though, Rock ‘n’ Roll Renaissance is a far cry from Long Tall Texans, modern or old. It’s not a bad album, it’s just pretty lukewarm. Most of the songs are the same kind of preppy, poppy punkabilly with annoyingly catchy choruses that still fail to make a lasting impression. There’s very little here to get excited about, except perhaps the general energy of the album. No hit songs, no memorable choruses, no killer riffs.

And I’m not even going to go into the ska elements. I love old school ska, I love psychobilly, I love punk – but I can’t stand ska mixed into the latter two.

There are a few highlights that save Rock ‘n’ Roll Renaissance from complete tepidness. Top Of The World has some pretty nifty melodies, combining the admirable energy of the band with something that leaves memory imprints.

Sadly, as far as entire songs go, Top Of The World is just about the only exception that rises above, even after a scientifically measured shit ton of spins. But Top Of The World is a nice song. There’s the odd moment here and there on other songs, where The Zipheads generate some excitement momentarily.

But, at the end of the day, Rock ‘n’ Roll Renaissance is an album that combines admirable energy, some questionable stylistic choices and unmemorable songs into a package that doesn’t manage to break out of the gray mass of mediocrity.

Visit The Zipheads on their official website, Bandcamp, Facebook or Instagram