THE NEW CHRISTS – Gloria

The New Christs always was and at all times will ever be the turf of the never-ending veteran lead singer, Rob Younger. Ever since he left the old act, Radio Birdman in 1980 the zealous Aussie formed The New Christs. After some lineup changes and with a new formation, the band was awarded with a chance to support the longstanding Iggy Pop who was on his Australian tour back in 1984. Throughout its history, The New Christs knew many breaks and stops. If you go over their record sheet you would notice five periods in the band’s timeline. The overall activity can be counted to twenty-five years of performing, lineup changes while here and there releasing some albums, EPs and singles.

The band’s first official full-length release was in 1988 under the name of Divine Rites. Probably many would think or figure out that the band was not into releasing LPs or that they just did not care for it. Releasing or not you got to give it up for Rob Younger, this guy was able to hold the reins of this band, version after version, and almost all by himself. He found new members and kept the pumping machine going – that is dedication folks.

The New Christs’ new album, Gloria, is a product after yet another recess that began in 2002, after the release of the band’s last two LPs (We Got This and These Rags) and lasted until 2006 when a new lineup was presented.

The album itself, as for its material, is a continuance of its usual style of music, which is rather diverse. Through the chants of Gloria you may find out that The New Christs are not only Rock N’ Roll. Within are also origins of Old School Punk Rock acts of the 70s and early 80s such as the Sex Pistols, Ramones and Bad Religion of the older and less speedy era, British Pop acts of the early 80s that tended to be Rocky at times and finally shards of Stoner Rock / Modern Rock such as The Strokes and The Hives. With all sorts of these recognitions, one might think that this piece of work is unique of its kind. However, as wide as the diversity goes, even with the addition of trouble-free solos, the name of the game is still Punk Rock and back in the old days, most of it was flat and so simple that it repeated itself more than often.

In the case of Gloria not all is bad and it came out to be a pretty nice album filled with the ordinary riffs of Punk Rock mixed with generic solos, down to earth electronic effects and on different circumstances, a good set of vocals. Featured songs such as “Try Something”, “The Posse”, “On All Fours”, “Bonsoir A Vous” and “My Existence” try to stumble on a line of attack out of Punk and to get close to Rock. Whether they came close or not, the performance is well done and even surprising for the old Punk spirit. There are anomalies such as “Animalisation” and “Daddy’s Calling”. The latter is quite interesting as it breaks the known pattern of this kind of music.

In the outline, Gloria is not a standout among the band’s albums yet, it’s quite refreshing to hear Old School of Punk Rock albeit to other modern acts of today.