THE POOR: Round 1

Produced by The Poor & Greg Clarke
* Produced by The Poor, Greg Clarke & Billy Thorpe
Released: October 19

The last half of this year has seen a veritable plethora of bands reforming for some reason. While some have obviously been nostalgic one-off reunions (Sadistik Exekution, Nitocris, iNFeCTeD, Candy Harlots), others are clearly reformations (Tumbleweed, Segression) that intend to continue. The Poor falls into the second category, and before even playing any shows (not counting the tour they did with W.A.S.P. last year), they’ve already released the first of what is apparently going to be at least two new albums.

The Poor is a band whose initial success should probably never have happened in the first place, a hell-raising heavy drinking hard rock band who scored a hit single and album at a time when such things had been made redundant by grunge. Fifteen years on from that 18 months or so of near-stardom, The Poor’s second album is a rather uneven collection of songs that for the most part sound like cast-offs. It would be presumptuous to expect a band that gets back together after 8 years to sound the way they did when they split, of course, and The Poor do not.

The first two songs play around in the familiar, brash hard rocking territory of old, but as an old fan it feels like something is missing. As the albums progresses, it becomes clear what that is. The tracks on Round 1 aren’t bad, but they lack the memorable hooks and raw, rocking power The Poor once had. In places I’m reminded of Lump, Skenie and drummer Gavin Hansen’s post-The Poor outfit that played around with grunge and nu-metal. While Round 1 never gets that far into those areas, there is a feeling that The Poor has tried to modernise their style a bit, perhaps a strange thing to do when their original style is currently enjoying a new surge of popularity thanks to the likes of Airbourne.

Round 1 isn’t bad and it’s good to have a pure rock band like The Poor back, but it probably just isn’t the comeback album some will expect, or want. When they start playing live again, most of the crowd will only want to hear their old stuff, so it probably doesn’t really matter anyway.

1. Kill My Faith
2. Death of Me
3. Last Laugh
4. House*
5. No One's Home
6. Prisoner of Fools
7. Don't Know What You're Missing
8. Love Isn't on Again
9. Guardian Angel (demo)
10. Can't Feel a Thing (demo)
11. Goodbye (demo)

Rating: 62%