Music Review // Apache Rose "Attention!

https://open.spotify.com/album/4JTk60zHBu4qsdaXBR4FDd?si=MLG58aWTT6-yXgw9ygew3g&nd=1

Apache Rose fills a rather serious need for indie rock which sounds a certain way in my life.   There are killer guitar solos and "Tiny Love" is clearly a single.   "Hit Me" starts off slower but then kicks in for the chorus and yet there are also so many melodies.   Some of the first influences I pull out are bands like The Living End and The Damn Personals- both which I feel aren't that well known, but it goes with the idea that this is a very specific genre of rock which I do not hear nearly enough of anymore.

"Attention!" is a little bit funky and maybe because of the title it makes me think of The Academy Is, but through those resonating guitar chords I can also hear somewhat of The Clash.  By the end of the album I can hear other artists ranging from The Exit to Kings of Leon.   The final song, "Some Kind of Love", is somewhere between The Beatles, Buddy Holly and Phantom Planet.  It just has a big, expansive sound overall.

One issue I take with this album is the song "You Kiss like a Girl".   I'm not sure what it means to "kiss like a girl" and I'm not sure that the song means it in a negative way, but it is still the year 2021 (and not the 1950's) so I think the idea of "____ like a girl" is outdated.  Even though it may not be the intention, the song just makes me think of things like "throws like a girl" (in baseball) or "hits like a girl" (in a fight) and so the fact that it makes me feel like it's even that much remotely tied with something so sexist makes it a song I cannot listen to because they do sing the title.

Within that same song though you will find the lyric: "I don't need to tell you how to do your thing", so I feel like the ideas behind the songs of Apache Rose are not meant to offend and it might just be one of my little hang ups.  I also realize this sounds most like a band which you had to be there to experience or you might not know they ever existed.  If you weren't into the New England music scene at the time The Damn Personals and The Exit were putting out albums you might have missed them.  Luckily, you're alive in the time when Apache Rose is releasing music (because you're reading this) so they won't go overlooked.