Backstreet Girls are a rock’n’roll institution in Norway. They have played the same style of boogie-based rock’n’roll since 1984, heavily inspired by bands like the Ramones, Rose Tattoo, Hanoi Rocks, Status Quo and AC/DC. Guitarist Petter Baarli is known for mixing up Chuck Berry-style riffs with Angus Young-like solos while duckwalking all over the stage.
Normal Is Dangerous is their seventeenth album. Like several of their inspirations, they have never really changed their style. For better or worse, depending on your viewpoint, you always know what you get from a Backstreet Girls album.
The band had a bit more than usual to prove this time, with new blood in the band making their recording debut. The band has always had its share of line-up changes, but the core of the band has always been relatively stable.
This time, stalwart Petter Baarli (guitar) and Bjørn Müller (vocals) were joined by new boys Frank Albin Tostrup (drums) and Morten Lunde (bass). With half the band replaced, it was important to show the world that Backstreet Girls still sounded like Backstreet Girls.
In short, they succeeded. They may also have surpassed themselves.
Backstreet Girls are known for going into a studio well-rehearsed and bashing out the album live-in-studio in relatively short time. This time, they went to Recpublica Studios in Poland, where a week was all they needed to wrap things up.
The results are phenomenal.
The band was clearly ready to make a robust and raw album which is bursting at the seams with energy. This is fast and pounding rock’n’roll, with boogie flourishes and – noteworthily – even a few dashes of metal thrown in here and there, which they usually stay clear of.
In spite of this, there’s even room for a bit of experimentation. Is that a mandolin we hear on Motorhellway? Well, I never. It may be halfway buried behind a wall of guitars, but this is huge in the world of Backstreet Girls!
The production is quite hard on this album. This is full-tilt boogie rock’n’roll from beginning to end.
The best Backstreet Girls albums of old managed to combine their insane drive with catchy choruses and a baked-in melodic sense. This album taps into that, even if some of their melodic sensibility is sacrificed on the altar of intensity.
Bjørn almost screams more than sings on a lot of this album, but it fits the material. It sounds good. It sounds like Backstreet Girls.
This may be their best album since Sick My Duck (2003).
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