Gun are a hard rock band from Glasgow who, with a split of 11 years between 1997-2008, have been in existence for thirty plus years, never quite making the breakthrough their fans have been predicting for them down the years.
The Calton Songs, named after the area where the band are from and still gather to write their songs, is ‘a full-bloodied celebration of the band’s career to date.’ The album’s origins came in the pandemic, when there was no touring or writing new songs to perform. But, despite the initial bleakness, out of it came a desire to rework some of the songs their fanbase would know well and to ‘give them a more stripped-down vibe.’ As singer Dante Gizzi states, “it’s ironic these feelings of negativity led to something far more positive, a celebration of our career to date”.
If you’re a Gun fan and expecting another Taking On The World, you won’t find it here. The Calton Tapes captures the sound of a band who’s attempting to, if not reinvent itself, at least try out a different approach to its music, and credit to them for this, even if their version of ‘Better Days’ lacks the anthemic power of the original. Their ‘live’ shows may be full-on rock affairs but, here, they’ve stripped things down to basics. There’s not too much rock on the album, this is more a mix of pop-oriented rock, with tracks like ‘Don’t Say It’s Over’ owing something to Oasis, though the more rocky version of ‘Inside Out’ has the feel of Thin Lizzy. The album is mainly guitar driven, though they feature the piano in ‘Crazy You’ and harmonica in ‘Coming Home’, and it’s all good basic stuff, with the added female vocals on ‘Taking On The World’ and ‘Higher Ground’ giving a nice feel to the tracks.
In sum, this is a fairly good album and it’ll mark time until they release an album of newer tracks, which they’re currently working on, though I suspect The Calton Songs will be an album purely for fans of Gun.
