MINDLESS - Wonderful Thing

Mindless - Wonderful Thing

5 songs
18:48 minutes
***** **
(self-released)

Bandpage

It’s hard to be objective when you have to review the EP of a band with whose guitarist the reviewer used to play in a different band over a quarter century ago. First of all this means that we are slowly getting old, but also I want to point out from the start that we developed into somewhat different musical directions. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t give the five songs on Wonderful Thing a fair listening. Also it should be noted that Luxembourg has currently more to offer than tons of metal(core) bands on the one hand, and a burgeoning electro indie pop scene on the other hand. There is a small but growing rock scene that might not yet benefit from the same structures as the aforementioned genres, but they are slowly getting there. And that brings us to Mindless, a new although not necessarily young rock band that fits into the new thoroughbred rock movement fronted by Fox and The Filthy Broke Billionaires. With the latter, Mindless have in common that both bands have a charismatic frontwoman, and with the former the fact that the bassist from Fox recorded Wonderful Thing.

So Mindless are a rock band. It would be wrong to label them hard rock, blues rock or whatever sub-genre you have in mind. Instead we get pure rock music influenced from the greats of the Seventies, the more polished stuff from the Eighties and some retro varieties from the early Nineties. Take for instance the opener End Of The Road, a pounding track which mostly highlights vocalist Carmen’s strong voice, but also shows that guitarist Jerry didn’t unlearn his trade after a more than twenty year long hiatus. Bassist Nadine also does a surprisingly good job, considering that she only recently learned how to play her instrument. Finally we have drummer Luc who plays simple yet effective beats that work well with the music.

Next up is Wonderful Thing the title track. This is a love song, which allows the guitar to play in an undistorted way. With In The City, Mindless are back to their rocking self, which works better for them in my opinion, and yet the final two tracks show that they like their more tamed self just as well. Summertime is a breezy Summer ballad, whereas Best Friends draws a bridge between slower and harder moments.

It’s hard to say where Mindless musically come from exactly. There is definitely a touch of AC/DC, and the vocal department is definitely familiar with the works of Melissa Etheridge and Linda Perry. Maybe artists like Lenny Kravitz and Bryan Adams have also left some trace elements. Maybe not the stuff I am usually listening to but even I can see/hear that Mindless have their merits. Two points of criticism remain though. First up I would have liked the balance to be tipped more in the direction of the rock songs, and secondly the lyrics are not always working for me. This is ok if you are death metal or grindcore band where nobody understands a word anyway, but when you have an expressive vocalist like Carmen, you should try to get your grammar right. But these are only minor complaints, leaving us with a solid rock EP that comes with a dry yet effective production that highlights the band’s no-frills attitude.

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