Casper Blanca - On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales)

Casper Blanca

On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales) 
self-released; 2014

3.7 out of 5

By Jamie Robash

Casper Blanca describes himself as simply being a guy from Copenhagen who loves both playing and listening to rock and roll music. However that statement doesn’t quite paint a truly accurate portrait of Casper Blanca. Blanca, a multi-talented multi-instrumentalist who crafts cool and catchy guitar riffs and then pairs them with lyrics peopled with people who are looking for love in one way or another. Oftentimes the characters who populate Blanca’s songs are liars and cheaters, and at other times they are the people who find their lives upended by those liars and cheaters.   

Casper Blanca’s latest release On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales) is an experiment of sorts and sees Blanca doing something he hadn’t ever done with previous records. Instead of going out in search of a backing band to play on this new eight-song EP, Blanca says he “decided to dust off some old and new songs for his new EP, and invited different bands and musicians to feature on each one of them.” This concept, though certainly risky, actually paid off rather well for Casper Blanca, and the songs on On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales) are fully realized and have the sound and production value which is found on releases by much bigger and more established artists. What the difference is here though is that the eight tracks On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales) don’t ever sound over produced, or overworked. 

After a brief first track acoustic interlude, On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales) begins to rock with “You, You & You!” which features Andy Vinyard along with scorching blues-styled guitar solos that set an up-tempo rock and roll beat. This song mostly sets the tone for what most of On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales) is going to sound like. So it’s not surprising when on the next track “Come On & Take It (it´s Good for You)” featuring Kenneth Gylmar Stadager the same raunchy styled blues-rock riffs are used. By the time one gets to the following though slightly subdued feel of “Jesus on Heroine - The Ballad of Louis & Anétte” one is fairly certain of what the rest of the record is going to sound like. 

However this isn’t necessarily a jab at Casper Blanca’s sound and the effect ends up working rather well on the album’s best and catchiest track, “Blackout Beauty” featuring Sandy Blue. Here the catchy sing-along chorus and the crisp and jangly guitars make one want to get up and dance, and the bluesy guitar solo that takes the song home is one of the best on the entire record. 

The album also contains a few quieter tracks that deserve to be highlighted, the most important one being “Drunk on Oz” which features Brave Coward. On this acoustic ballad, backed by ghostly echoed vocals and a sad accordion definitely helps to put On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales) on the classic rock n’ roll it deserves to be on. 

Collaborations between artists can oftentimes be a real mistake because artists often have conflicting opinions of what a song should sound like. However on On Top Of Sticky Fingers (Head, Bodies & Tales), Casper Blanca assembled some very talented musicians and has made a collaborative album that sounds both wholesome and rocking. 

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