Iron Claw, A Different Game: Sometimes They Come Back
In 2009, the respectable historians at Rockadrome Records unearthed recordings by Scottish rockers Iron Claw that had been lost for roughly 35 years. The resulting self-titled compilation was met with a welcome response, and it fueled Iron Claw – who broke up in 1974, but played one or two reunion gigs in the meantime – to reform for new studio material. Recorded by bassist Alex Wilson, mixed and mastered by Stone Axe guitarist T. Dallas Reed and released by reliable purveyors Ripple Music, A Different Game is essentially Iron Claw’s first album, 40 years after the fact. It’s a fascinating proposition, and probably some rockers’ dream, that some day, they’ll finally get the appreciation they’ve long deserved, but that doesn’t necessarily mean doing a new record is a good idea. You’d be crazy to expect that because the three founding members of a band that rocked pretty hard four decades ago got back together and gave it a go with a new singer that they’d automatically pick up right where they left off. Life just doesn’t work that way. It’s like blaming someone for growing up. 40 years is a long time, and I’ve no doubt that Wilson, guitarist Jimmy Ronnie and drummer Ian McDougall – who are joined in Iron Claw by newcomer Gordon Brown – are much different people than they were when they recorded the songs that were later released as Iron Claw.
So foremost for anyone who heard the older Iron Claw material, A Different Game is going to live up to its title. Because it’s true: it’s a completely different game than it was when the band started out, and likewise, they’ve changed too. Most of the 13 tracks on the record are a kind of semi-heavy rock that occasionally drives home a killer blues riff but mostly sticks to a classic rock format. It might seem derogatory to call it “old-man rock,” but that’s what it is. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t rock, it just means it rocks like you might expect it to for being the product of guys whose sphere of influence and means of interpreting that influence are based on what it meant to be heavy decades ago. It’s like when Blue Cheer put out What Doesn’t Kill You. It wasn’t cool because it was so relevant or innovative in its style. It was cool because they were still doing it, because they still had it. That’s what’s working for Iron Claw here. If you’re thinking they’re going to plug back into their old amps and rip through material with the same intensity they did when they were 20 years old, well, I’m sorry, but you’re going to be disappointed both in listening to A Different Game and in life in general. There are a few heavier moments on the record – “See Them Fall” reminds of Iron Maiden, and opener “What Love Left” starts off swaggering and shuffling with Brown perhaps nodding at younger listeners with the line, “Sit down, son, there is much for you to learn” – and Ronnie has several choice solos throughout, but mostly it’s a straightforward traditional rock record that makes a lot of the moves you’d expect.
Ronnie leads the band as Brown turns the well-rocked “The Traveler” into a road song – one assumes it’s a metaphor, but still pretty ballsy for Iron Claw, who haven’t toured since before most of the people who are going to hear their album were born – but where A Different Game finds its biggest missteps is in the ballads. The title-cut is one, and tracks like “It’s Easy” and to a certain extent “Love is Blind” fall into the cliché trap of “rocker dude expressing his feelings” that probably would’ve been best left alone. Telling too that within the span of one track, Brown goes from the “Does she love me still” sentimentality of “A Different Game” to “She’s my dark-eyed angel wo-munh/She gives everything I need” on “Angel Woman,” but hey, that’s rock and roll, right? The chorus of “It’s Easy” finds Brown even more embroiled in postured-seeming emotional turmoil: “It hurts inside/But it’s easy/You know it hurts/But it’s easy if you try.” Frankly, I’d rather hear songs about working a dayjob for more than three decades after being in a semi-successful touring act from Iron Claw, as at least that would be honest. There are parts of A Different Game that feel too self-conscious and stuck in an idea of what a rock album needs to be. The catchy “My Way Down” recovers the momentum somewhat, but lines like, “It’s true I want you/Want you in my bed,” come off like a put-on. I understand everybody wants to fuck all the time, but seriously, Iron Claw hasn’t been a band for 35 years and that’s what you’ve got to say?
Some of this material is said to be derived from half-written songs from the early ‘70s, and I believe it, but given the modern sheen of the production of A Different Game, nothing stands out as being distinguishable on a temporal basis. The root fact is Iron Claw came back after a really long time and put out a mediocre record. Maybe in 35 years it’ll find some basis of appreciation, but for now it’s a collection of mostly-decent songs that probably could’ve been more personal, more intricately-produced and, in a few cases, left on the cutting room floor. Iron Claw set expectations high, but though that it was unrealistic to think this band could accomplish that kind of energy, A Different Game doesn’t really live up to even the new terms it sets for itself with the strong opening of “What Love Left” and “Saga,” which follows. Much of the album’s 56 minutes languishes, and leaves one wondering how McDougall, Wilson and Ronnie (whose leads really are worth taking the time to appreciate) really felt about picking up Iron Claw again after so long. There are some cool stretches here, and it’s awesome that the guys would feel so passionate about the response their music got that they’d essentially reboot the band, but I wish they’d made the album that told that story, either musically or lyrically.
Tags: Iron Claw, Ripple Music, Scotland
