SCARLET REBELS - See Through Blue (CD)

Wayne Doyle, frontman with Welsh rockers Scarlet Rebels, was watching TV in the middle of the pandemic when he found his anger rising. Some
faceless British politician – he can’t remember which one, mainly because they mostly look the same – was shamelessly taking credit for footballer
Marcus Rashford’s successful campaign to reinstate free school meals for children during those difficult times.
'This guy was basically hijacking something someone else had done,' says Wayne, the ire still evident in his voice. 'I was watching these politicians
coming on the news every day, trotting out absolute bullshit and using the world’s downturn to make a profit for themselves. And no one from the other
side was calling them out in it. Politics is so corrupt. It needs a kick up the arse.'
This state of affairs inspired the title track of the Llanelli five-piece’s stellar new album, See Through Blue. Over a steadily intensifying musical
backdrop that evokes such musical icons as Bruce Springsteen and latterday Johnny Cash, Wayne crucifies a ruling elite guilty of 'gaslighting a whole
goddamn nation to push your contracts through.' The striking album cover illustrates the point – created by Carl Cozier of Holy Moly Design,
it features Prime Minister Boris Johnson standing at a podium, casting a demonic shadow. All the rage and fear and uncertainty of recent times has
been poured into the album’s 11 tracks, resulting the rarest of rock’n’roll albums: one with a sense of purpose. But where the title song and anthemic
first single Storm – which questions whether people are prepared for the aftershocks of both the pandemic and the government’s high-level
malfeasance – are both fuelled by a righteous sense of injustice, other bolder, emotions also shine through.