Devin - Romancing Review

Young New Yorker Devin Therriault is unashamed of his love for the city's rock'n'roll heritage: "I pretty much exclusively listen to music that's before my time," he has said. That's apparent throughout his debut album – hints of the New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders, the Strokes and Ramones pop up throughout, along with the obligatory nods to 1960s girl-group arrangements. That's all well and good, but there's a mighty gulf between those acts and scores of garage rockers long since forgotten, and it's one that can only be bridged with the very best songs. And those are what Devin doesn't have. The voice whines, the drums thunder, the guitars roar, but there's no single melody that sears itself into the memory. Pick of the bunch is the album's opener, Masochist, where Devin's phrasing recalls another New York great, Lou Reed, and the clatter of words over the bass and palm-muted guitars in the verses suggests a young man in a hurry, with something urgent to say....full text Pump this kid’s sound up! Twenty-something-year-old Brooklyn rocker Devin has a sweet little album ready to let loose on us. Well, not so little, with fourteen tracks. While his style of rock is not entirely new, Devin Therriault – who I fancy as a James Dean meets Elvis Presley style rocker, one cool cat – still manages to deliver an edgy, fresh and punchy sound with Romancing.

Devin’s lyrics on Romancing are centered on love, obviously mainly of the broken kind, and his raw rock vocals deliver the heartache and angst with perfect vigour.
What I so love about this album is that most tracks are actually danceable. You know that, if lucky enough to see Devin live, there’d be none of this standing around tapping one foot and bobbing your head while staring up at the stage with a bored expression. The only way to enjoy this album is to dance your arse off around the house whilst listening to it, ignoring the concerned glances shot over the fence from neighbours (just like I did!)....full text Rock always returns to its pre–psychedelia roots, and there’s a reason for that. The primal, raw energy of a man howling about his baby done left him, hammering his guitar for all its worth connects with people
in a way nothing else does...and Devin certainly captures that.

If Willy Moon is aiming at Elvis, Devin is pure Jerry Lee Lewis. 'Romancing' starts full of pumped up punk cool with ‘Masochist’, dives toward doo wap with ‘Born to Cry’ and echoes a Phil Spector girl group with ‘New Horrors’, continuing at a break neck pace throughout. It’s lively, fun and sounds new, although as anyone who’s heard The Hives’ 2000 album ‘Veni Vidi Vicious’, can tell you,it's far from it. ...full text The title of Devin’s debut is something of a misnomer too. It’s less Romancing and more cheekily being chatted up by a twinkle-eyed chancer on a 3am beer buzz outside a Brooklyn dive bar. Sneering like the New York Dolls transplanted to a nighthawk-populated diner after exchanging their shiny skin-tight trousers for leather jackets and Elvis LPs, this is a rock’n’roll record and no mistake. Like fellow Big Apple residents and punk pioneers the Ramones, who took the girl group template and amped it up with electric guitars before sending it on a mind-expanding trip through the seedy corridors of the Hotel Chelsea, Devin takes it upon himself to give loverboy blues much the same treatment. With tracks called things like Born to Cry, I’m Not a Fool and My Solitude, he channels teenagers in lust like Del Shannon and Dion and the Belmonts, falling head-over-heels before bemoaning an occasional broken heart....full text