John Wroath is an English rocker who’s just released three new singles on all platforms: “Heading For Paradise,” “You Can Be a Star” and “This Is Rock and Roll.” Wroath’s stated goal is to be “as honest and authentic as possible with my music, telling stories of passion, pain, triumph and joy!”
Wroath began his first group in the spring of 1975 using the instantly recognizable name “Kashmir.” Wroath played electric bass and his band covered songs by The Beatles, The Stones and The Doobie Brothers, along with blues standards and various chart hits of the day. By 1976 under their new name Crazy Diamond the band started playing local pubs and clubs, while also seeing (and learning from) many live shows featuring acts like Black Sabbath, Wishbone Ash, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Camel, Budgie and James Brown. Finally in 1978 Wroath began writing his own songs for a post-punk band named Cigarettes who Wroath claims were “The Red Hot Chili Peppers BEFORE the Chili Peppers!” Wroath’s most lasting collaboration would happen in 1987 with a band called The Wayward Sons. For two decades they lived the rock dream with thousands of gigs, a hundred songs, several albums, EP’s, radio play and tours with some of the biggest names around. When that band finally ended, Wroath became a solo act, which is where we find him today. The first track “Heading For Paradise” is an uptempo folk rocker that telegraphs its intentions with the line “Speed along life’s highway at a thousand miles an hour.” I was immediately put in mind of the later Nesmith-centric Monkees. Wroath creates a backing track built from jangly acoustic guitars and piano, with his own English-accented vocals guiding us along. Though the song is mostly built around its straight-ahead choruses (“I’ve got you by my side / and we’re heading for paradise”) the chord schemes used for the verses are sophisticated without being mannered or pretentious. The synth horns do sound a bit artificial, in a home taper kind of way. Overall the song feels like it comes from a happy, enthusiastic place and that feeling is contagious. “You Can Be a Star” is more of a jaunty-tempo rocker with heavier electric guitars and a more realistic horn track. As with “Heading For Paradise” Wroath sings the verses alone, then overdubs multiple harmonies on the choruses, and he’s quite adept with that vocal mic. Whether it’s all him or he brought in some ringers, the quality of the singing is uniformly high. The lead guitar acts as a counter-melody and adds a lot of excitement. Wroath basically substitutes his enthusiasm for his lover in “Paradise” with the excitement of being a star. The final track “This is Rock And Roll” starts with an old trick: making the song sound like it’s coming from a radio (I’ve done it myself!). To his credit, Wroath jumps into the song proper almost immediately, and this may be his most solid groove yet, again built mainly on acoustics, piano and vocals. Electric guitar is saved for ornamentation on the choruses. Wroath is an artist of a certain age (as his bio makes abundantly clear) and this is the kind of song you’d expect to hear from one of the first bands you’d ever heard as a kid, like the Banana Splits or The Archies (and those bands had great songwriters, so no shame there!). What’s amazing is the elfin enthusiasm Wroath brings to the simple concept of what rock and roll means, which you’d think he’d be way beyond. I’m not sure how Wroath’s tracks would play in an album setting, where I assume he might leave some of his relentless enthusiasm with a touch of angst, but these three songs can’t help but put a lift in your step!
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