Indie Music Album Reviews

Cold Irons Bound - I Wasn't Thinking At All

4/28/2023

Cold Irons Bound

I Wasn't Thinking At All
self-released; 2023

By Matt Jensen

I’m a fan of both Teenage Fanclub and Tom Petty so my interest piqued when I was reading about that Cold Irons Bound sounds like a combination of those bands. The band describe themselves as “straddled between the rootsy alternate tunings of Americana and the heart of a scruffy rock n roll bar band.”

“I Wasn’t Thinking At All” is the band's most recent single. I spent some time with the song to get an idea of what this band was about.

The song starts simply enough with strummed guitar vocals. Additionally guitars, bass and drums come in a very classic rock type of way reminiscent of the band The Who. Some of the production does lend itself to more of a ’90s alternative aesthetic but that ’70s flavor is certainly in there as well.

The song moves by fast. The verse is catchy and the vocals are well delivered. It was a little hard to pick up on a hook and it’s hard to make a claim there is one. There are changes to the vocal melodies but it doesn't feel like a chorus in some ways which is fine. The song moves about on a nice pace leading to a brief but effective breakdown right around the two-minute mark. They are able to quickly get back on into the groove and soon after the song ends.

This was a great song. In fact I sort of wanted a little more of it. It’s a little less than three minutes long and I think they could have stretched this out by about another minute. On that note there’s really nothing I didn’t like about this song. The production is great for rock, the band sounds tight and it makes you want to listen to some more of their music.

That’s in fact exactly what I did and also checked out their song “Conversation.” I swear the vocalist sounds very similar to Dave Grohl on this song. In fact the whole song has a lot of similarities to Foo Fighters. The band of course brings their own signature sound. The verse and chorus are more compartmentalized here with a clear divide. Similarly to the previous song I very much appreciated the memorable melodies.

I thoroughly enjoyed these tunes. The band is not reinventing the wheel but they have chemistry and can write a great song. Recommended.