If the art of good rock music is taking a robust sound and lacing it through with infectious melodies and memorable hooks and the art of great pop music is to aim higher than the short shelf life teen market and create something with longevity and integrity then The Decrees are artists indeed. It comes as no surprise to find that they call Dunfermline home, I can hear the distant echoes of the same Celtic fanfares and, on West Sierra in particular, the same martial beats as that towns fellow guitar slinging warrior poets Big Country.
Sons of Rage is built from the same threads of widescreen musicality, post-punk edge, poignant lyricsm and defiance that ran through the many and myriad originators of the “big music” back in the day and rather than steer their ship too close to the fickle rocks of fashion The Decrees sail unimpeded through deeper, more realistic, more original and certainly more rewarding waters. And like those who helped draw the charts they use to navigate to their own horizon, they have that fantastic ability to turn kitchen sink dramas into street opera, to turn the mundane into mythology to entwine and layer simple melodies into wonderfully rich musical motifs . They also brilliantly remind us that modern music doesn’t have to be the bastion of those who promote their skinny jeans and complicated haired style over actual musical substance. Thank you Decrees, you have just brightened my day.
