I must have some sort of misspent childhood, because as soon as I saw this cover I thought of Sisyphus and his eternal punishment in Hades of pushing a rock up a hill only for it to roll back down every time he neared the top. Anyway, Zan Burnham (guitar, vocals), Marko Djordjevic (drums, vocals), Angela Watson (vocals), Philip Dessinger (vocals) and Saadi Zain (bass, vocals) plus new member Adrienne McKay (keyboards, vocals) are back with their latest release, which to my ears is their strongest yet.
As one may gather from the title this is a tribute to the first three decades of Rock ‘n’ Roll, although to my ears this is mostly rooted in the Seventies and is all the better for it. They actually kick it all off with an instrumental which has plenty of progressive tendencies, which is also the longest song here, and really sets the tone. One of the joys of this band is that they have multiple lead singers, with Phil and Angela both happy to front and provide support to the others, while Zan also takes a few lead roles himself. I thoroughly enjoyed the presence of Phil on this album and was planning to say what a huge impact he had, as he does, so it was something of a shock to read the press release and discover he passed away not long after this was recorded. He went out on a goodie, as this is an album which makes the listener smile from beginning to end whether the band are channelling Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Creedence, James Brown or any of the influences which have had such a major impact. This is an album which is designed for a party, where everyone playing it has a smile on their face, and “Rockin’ & Rollin’ on Down the Road” (which closes this album and appears to be a combination of a live recording and studio) is a blast with great performances from all. Every time I play this, I just keep tuning it up as Chuck Berry is brought right up to date and everyone is jiving on the floor.
Zan Zone are a band I have long admired, and here they have definitely delivered their finest release to date as this is a blast and anyone who wants rock ‘n’ roll in its many forms need look no further. Losing Phil is undoubtedly a blow, but Zan Zone are still going strong and will be interesting to see what their future holds. 8/10 By Kev Rowland
