It must be fun to be AmyJo Doherty. Her brother is in The Libertines, who was one of the biggest bands in the English rock world and people expect greatness from him. But AmyJo can do her own thing, not coast per se, but find her own sound, one that dips from UK garage rock, old school punk, ska, and whatever else she wants. And this is exactly what she did with this new release Spangle Landia along with her Madrid-based band, The Spangles.
Much like the trippy clip art album cover, this album is kind of all over the place. Songs like the opener “Rock N Roll” are straightforward adrenaline rockers ala Joan Jett, but then you have a Sandanista! Clash-style tracks like “Robert De Niro,” and then a party punk anthem like “Take A Stand.” AmyJo herself also seems conflicted on what kind of singer she wants to be; the next Blondie or Poly Styrene.
Her thick English accent comes through on some tracks, but it’s also cloaked in darkness on a few. Perhaps this is because this album feels like a compilation album of different years of the band that dropped the 2017 debut Calle de The Spangles.
Basically, Spangle Landia is like many different soups or tastes of The Spangles sound. It feels like an homage to the old punk rock of yesterday, but also a bit modern, hard to put your finger on it. There’s nothing completely new here, but quite a few genres are done extremely well to make a comfortably enjoyable mish-mash of an album.
