This is a review of "1000 Words" recorded by The Gonzo's. The review was written by Jimmy Horrigan in 2014.

A review in under an hour is the goal I set myself before pressing play but soon after I hit the button I realised that wouldn't be hard. A thousand words would be difficult to fill here sorry.

From the first chord The Gonzo's thunder into life but it's under a looming shadow of predictability that's hard to dodge. I'm either missing the point and this is simply music aimed at the easily pleased, or it's a certain brand of neo-vintage rock I just don't understand and will likely never be ready for. Either way it doesn't just hit the spot for me no matter how well produced it may be. There are so many types of music being revisited these days but I didn't realise we were already at the point where mediocre state-side sounds from less than ten years ago, and others from a forgettable era of metal, were already up for re-treatment.

If you like enthusiastic power chords and pub calibre lyrical content then this is your ticket out of taste and into the blur of ignorance. Sorry, I can't give this any more of my time. All I'd say is the music is too simple to be taken serious but possibly too self-involved to be a joke and too far removed from modernity to be relevant. I might think differently after ten pints of Stella down the local but given that that will never happen - I think I'm safe from crossing the threshold from musicality into the dark unknown that lies beyond.

Overall the album makes a lot of noise but has little to say and part of that is because of the lack of identity that seems to trouble it throughout. It's evident there are some historic musical influences that underpin the work behind the songs but the result is a confused output. More development alongside the early stages of reggae-tinged 'Sucking on a shotgun' would be welcomed but they're just not there, instead giving in to a mixture of power-chord and 70's Sabbath moments or quasi-stadium/frat-rock homage that don't quite pay off.

Listen. I don't like it but equally so I don't like to write anything bad as a rule because it's not fair on the artist. I could just be the wrong audience for these songs and I actually hope I'm right about that. If your bedroom's untidy and you don't want to do your homework because that's your way of sticking it to the man - and who knows, you maybe even fancy Stacy's mom or something - then maybe you'll like this.