The first thing I thought when listening through to Open Sores, the genius opening track on Bloomington, Indiana's The Cowboys' latest Bottom of a Blooming Flower was, 'this singer sounds an awful lot like Russell Mael.'
It's an unusual reference point. We're very much used to lead singers taking Iggy or Lou as their formative reference points but Mael was always the most inimitable of vocalists. As the record forges onwards, the impression ossifies, Sparks are clearly a key influence which ensures things remain lively to say the least. Elsewhere the usual Glam, Punk and New Wave markers come to mind.
Bottom of a Blooming Flower is enormous fun. It's clear the band are having a wail of time and they bash things out each and every one of the sixteen tracks here with enormous relish and aplomb. One to make you go back to the original Seventies classics from which it lifts its gas. The Cowboys stand on the shoulders of giants but also remarkably on their own ten legs. A record that very well might make you smile. It certainly made me do so...
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