goth & roll

I’ve never hidden my preference for The 69 Eyes over the years and I’ve been following the band since their early 00s days. Now four years after “X”, they are back with their new studio album. “X” wasn’t a great album but it featured 2-3 amazing tracks. Well, you see the case with “Universal Monsters” is that it is not very cohesive song-wise and it does not also feature any “very atmospheric/catchy” tracks – I think “Jerusalem” could have been one of these tracks but it doesn’t manage to do so eventually. The album is fine on the whole but it’s not nowhere near the band’s great albums.
 

Billion Dollar Babies are Swedes (what else) and they seem to go for a style of modern melodic gothic, sleazy roll, part 69 Eyes, part Hardcore Superstar, part “god knows what”.
 
You get the picture, shouty, punky 1-2 anthems with a bit more of pizazz than normal… actually not bad. I usually tend to dislike bands that have just a muffled, rounded, “modern” production, because no matter how good or loud it might be, it’s almost always about groove and compression/loudness and there’s very little substance in the way of the songs being actually catchy...
 

Entering, auspiciously, their 20th year of existence… The 69 Eyes are more concentrated than before, knowing exactly how to play the game and where to focus mostly. Avoiding mistakes of the past and by giving quick sneaky looks at their previous albums that made an impact like: “Blessed Be” & “Paris Kills”, while taking good care of their sound… The 69 Eyes are on the top of gothic rock music, leading the way.