Siamese
Shameless

After shamelessly changing their name from Siamese Fighting Fish and releasing the album Siamese in 2015, the band from Denmark is now band with their fourth effort called Shameless. An album not that easy to web search for information and the press sheet didn’t even contain the band members or a track list hence a bit of nonsensical space filling dribbling of my own take on this band. And as I never got the previous album I must point out that the name change isn’t to my liking, why change name from a unique band name to one used by at least a handful of band and not to mention by a very popular breed of cat. Why not call your band Somali if you want a cat name that is related to a location? It is a much less popular breed of cat, and a better-looking cat than the Siamese.

Musically the band has changed much less than the name since I last heard them, it is still alternative rock that can be described in many different ways as their music spans in many directions woven cleverly together into a coherent album. The vocals are great and passionate, as is the production. The songs are varied and the album has plenty of depth, and it has plenty of hit potential – this band could reach very far if circumstances align for them. This new album deals with deadly sins, with trumps and keyboard warriors that is a constant plague on civilised society. It is an album with strong emotional resonance.

One can clearly notice now that 2017 is finally coming good with some great releases and this is certainly one of these really great ones. It all starts with the excellent Ablaze that is a great opening tune and a really memorable song. I also think Soul & Chemicals is one of those great tracks, a really memorable one – like the album itself is a memorable album. These Shameless Danes certainly know how to make great music and this album is a manifesto to that fact.

I think the conclusion have to be that this is a great album, one of the finest of 2017 so far. And while it may not be as great as the 2013 effort Breathe:See:Move we can still conclude that even though they have changed from fish to cat they still have some bite and that Shameless will most likely be one of the top ten candidates when 2017 is to be summarised many months from now. It is impressive stuff and deserves a recommendation, clearly an album you have to take a closer look at. You will probably regret it if you don’t.

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