Her sister is cuter, her Daddy a better musician, and she isn't even the most famous woman to front her backing band, that would be Annie Golden, and the title track? I heard two years ago when she opened for the bloke from Dream Syndicate at Bowery Electric. So if she isn't those, who is Suzanne Real?
Suzanne Real is the star of her second album Kiss Me Like A Man, and from the producer Ed Stassium's prophetic opening direction: "Whatever happens, don't stop", Real catapults herself into the big time. Kiss Me Like A Man is the summer movie of winter rock and roll, a high octane blast of energy that takes you from one end of the album. Opening with one of the Staten Island blues singers best song "21 Days" and following it with a full blooded ballad, by the third track, before another hard blues rave up, this is full cylinder, no nonsense blues rock. By the time you reach "Bleeker Street", you forgive her the occasional lapse and the frankly iffy lyric simply because of the relentlessly dynamic hard sell.
The Real story is well documented but let's repeat it. Suzanne's father, drummer John Criscione, was a member of the Shirts. The Shirts…? I saw the Shirts countless times in the late 1970s, they were the other house band at CBGBs after the Dead Boys, and they opened for everyone, as thankless a task as you will ever get. A completely professional crew, the Shirts had two hit albums in Europe, and then broke up. Forty years later, father formed a backing band for daughter Suzanne and founding Shirts, John Amato and Bob Racioppo, a little wrinkled true, joined them.
The one time I saw SRB I thought they were terrific, but I didn't think they were this. This entire album has the brilliance of a diamond found in the soil of New York's rock scene. Sexy and dynamic, and lead by a singer with amazing pipes. Suzanne doesn't have range but she has the tone: she has a tough leatherette soulfulness that brings a sultry sexiness to her songs.
And the songs. Unbelievable there is no writing credits on the album, but my guess is Suzanne writes the lyrics and the band write the songs. The lyrics are the weakest part of the album: they are entirely utilitarian, there to perform the task, to sound good, to sound hard and sweet. And they do. But this is 2012, and for every "21 Days" there's a "Bad Habits". A terrific song by the way, but the bluer than blue boogie "Bad Habits" is saddled with "Cause if you love me once, you’re gunna love me twice, three times baby on a Saturday night." Fair enough, and I am sure AC/DC would approve, but I am equally sure AC/DC would have thrown in a punchline. But it isn't all cliche, "Blood On My Hand" works a perfect lyric into the closest Suzanne gets to satisfying her Janis Joplin addiction.
And anyway, it is about the overall all sounds and what is at its heart a very old fashioned blues and rock band, playing straight up no chaser hard rock with a superb band and a great singer. I mean, it is no deeper than that, and no easier either. In 2012 we were all drawn to it, in 2012 it is a novelty act.
The backing band are passionate and lovely, the guitar solos are the least indulgence things you've ever heard, the Middle Eastern flavored guitar on "Power Of Authority is so smart, it leaves you gagging for more, before it merges back with the band and Suzanne let's loose here but with so much control it comes across as complete self-confidence. SRB name check the producer and really, there is this sense of band letting loose but with extreme discipline, of being directed that less is more. This allows the rhythm section to thrive and they sound like 1965 Watts and Wyman: it is as if everything is being channeled with lazer precission for the common good, to the urge to rock you hard and long.
The star is Suzanne of course and Suzanne is leaping forward here. This is a complete vocal tour de force, a phenomenal achievement and the rock and roll vocal of the year. She doesn't have breadth but she has depth, so much conviction it is just a shame she didn't give herself more interesting words to sing it with.
What would I change? I would have added a cover, I would have got a hand with the lyric. And that's about it. Otherwise, this is a superb concoction. The sorrow is that in 1985, I would have assumed this was gonna break em pop and in 2012 who the hell knows. The world's loss. "Whatever happens, don't stop" the producer ordered and the Suzanne Real Band did exactly that.
Grade: A-