The Forty-Fives may be from Atlanta, but they seem to have absorbed a lot of Detroit. Trace elements of much of Detroit’s greatest music–from Motown soul through the glory days of the Stooges and MC5 up to recent garage-rocking outfits like the Gories, White Stripes and Dirtbombs (whose Jim Diamond produced the new CD)–can all be found riding close to the surface on their third CD, High Life High Volume.
The Forty-Fives’ calling card is an undercurrent of soul and R&B that runs just under their super-tight, garage-rocking retro sound. All four members contribute equally to that equation, but keyboard player Trey Tidwell should be singled out; his organ playing in particular gives the Forty-Fives a quick first step that cuts the competition.
They try on a bunch of musical hats on their new album and look and sound great in every tone. “Who Do You Think You Are” is a soul/R&B rave-up; “Go Ahead and Shout” is high-octane blues; and “Bicycle Thief” is convincing honky country. “Superpill” recalls the Aussie punk of The Saints and Celibate Rifles, and “Junkfood Heaven” sounds like the kind of cheeky, R&B flecked punk groove that the Heartbreakers strove for and occasionally nailed live. They even pull off a soulful ballad, “Too Many Miles,” and toss in a go-go version of the blues classic “Daddy Rolling Stone.”
Impressively, despite all the genre jumping, every track here is stamped solid-gold. High Life High Volume is the party-starter of the year so far.
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2005.