The Dirty Streets :: Movements

Memphis’ The Dirty Streets unearth a lost nugget from the heyday of straight-up rock…their own. Their full-length Movements, both a love letter to and from the days of swagger and bluster blues rock, replenishes some shelves that often get left bare. If you’re hankering for that warm bravado and thump of strides left by cats like The Faces or Humble Pie channeled through modern speakers, this might be your ticket. The Dirty Streets seem more intent on reclaiming lost ground than they do looking backwards through rose-colored glasses, and red eyes, on Movements. Big guitars with plenty of hooks and riffs, a rooted and active bottom end, a warm production, great vocals…it all feels natural and rolls out as easy as rolling one. Writing songs that play to their strengths over trying to re-invent a wheel that wasn’t really broke to begin with, Movements breaks free of limp nostalgia by easing into tradition, dove-tailing right into the timeline. And it plays out like an album. Opener Movements rolls out with a lazy flow setting up the platter to unfold as comfortably as the cut does. You can call it blues rock, 70s rock, classic rock, Southern rock if you have to…whatever you want, but if anything it’s roots rock. It worked then, and The Dirty Streets deliver up showing it works now…there’s not a void to fill, but there’s always a vibe.

Cloud of Strange :: The Dirty Streets :: Movements (2011, The Dirty Streets)

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