"This These are soaring, ambitious songs played effortlessly by a posse of wily veterans. Tracks like "Money In the Truck (American Plan)" have an epic, cinematic quality.
Singer and bassist Constantine Karzis is a theatrical and engaging frontman -- go figure, he's a movie and television actor and, yeah, that was him with James Caan in that mob picture. Liverpool-born lead guitarist Paul Judkins’ father really did go to school with John Lennon. Keyboardist Patrick Corbett bolsters The Giant Baby with a wall of electric sound that recalls what Bob Dylan dubbed "thin, wild mercury."
Playing a lush and lyrical rhythm guitar, Mike Devine and Judkins give The GB a one-two punch.
Backing it all up is Max Payne (yes, that it his real name and he may well have inspired the eponymous video game since he moves like a Belgian gangster), who has played with Judkins and Corbett since their days in newly unified Germany in the early 1990's. Payne is the Swiss movement of this Rolex Daytona and he never needs winding up -- check out the backbeat on "Break My Heart" and the anthemic "One Drink."
But like all bands worth paying to see or hear, the Giant Baby is even greater than the sum of its parts.
Nowhere is this more apparent than on "Coming Up," which has the hook of a hit and should be coming to a soundtrack near you even if I have to write a movie to put it in.
Since I'm descending into sychophantic fandom -- and I've seen every gig of theirs save one and was there when it all started at the legendary El Mocambo in December 2005 -- I will say that "Coming Up," with its slow-fast-slow-fast harmonies and guitar pyrotechnics, is like plunging into a goldmine equipped with Bose speakers, where Amy Winehouse serves free Tanqueray.
Guitar groups are here to stay. So, too, are bands that aspire to be great whether playing in front of 20 people or 20,000."
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