11 hours ago2 min read

Sweet – ‘Isolation Boulevard’

With a title cleverly adapted from their seminal 1974 album ‘Desolation Boulevard’, ‘Isolation Boulevard’ is just superb.

It’s fair to say the seventies superstars Sweet have released one of the finest albums of 2024 in ‘Full Circle’, but hot on its heels comes this worldwide re-issue of ‘Isolation Boulevard’, an excellent re-recording of some of their classic seventies Glam Rock anthems that has previously been difficult to obtain.

With newcomers Paul Manzi (vocals – ex-Cats In Space, Arena) and Lee Small (bass/vocals – Phenomena, Shy, Atack) joining the only surviving original member and guitarist Andy Scott and his long-time collaborator Bruce Bisland (drums), Sweet embarked on their biggest tour to date in 2019 which was due to lead into the writing and recording of ‘Full Circle’, but then of course in 2020 the whole world ground to a halt thanks to the Covid pandemic. Unable to work on their new album but still yearning for musical creativity to while away the long hours in isolation, the four members decided to re-record some of Sweet’s finest tunes remotely. In essence, it turns out it was the perfect, first recorded Sweet outing for the two new guys, that’s made all the more impressive by the excellent production and awesome performances.

Classic hits abound; you can’t go wrong with the likes of ‘Fox On The Run’, ‘Action’, ‘Blockbuster’, ‘Love Is Like Oxygen’, ‘Hell Raiser’, ‘Turn It Down’, ‘Teenage Rampage’ or ‘Ballroom Blitz’, while there’s also room for album tracks like ‘Set Me Free’ and a new version of their cover of Hello’s ‘New York Groove’, originally covered on their ‘New York Connection’ album). ‘Still Got The Rock’ was originally recorded by the previous line-up as a compilation album bonus track, but this new Paul Manzi-fronted version is a vast improvement.

If anything, the “We just haven’t got a clue what to do!” parts in ‘Blockbuster’ don’t quite convince as much as Steve Priest’s used to, but the fact that the spoken intro to ‘Ballroom Blitz’ still namechecks the original members is a nice touch. With a title cleverly adapted from their seminal 1974 album ‘Desolation Boulevard’, ‘Isolation Boulevard’ is just superb.

Reviewer: Ant Heeks

Label: Metalville

Genre: Rock

Issue Reviewed In: 109