In summary:

Re-working your classic material is never an easy task (especially when you’ve changed singers!), so it’s very impressive that Gun have been able to succeed and even improve some of the source material in the process.

The Calton Songs receives 8/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

It’s fair to say the fucktacular shitnado of ass that was 2020 couldn’t have arrived at a worse time for Gun.

The COVID-19 pandemic scuppered their chance to capitalize on the long overdue chart success of their previous album (2017’s Favourite Pleasures, which gave them their first UK Top 20 album since 1994), and this caused the Scottish rock giants to retreat inwardly, with several band members later speaking of the mental health struggles they experienced during lockdown.

The Calton Songs acted as the catalyst to get them back inside the studio.

It’s a compilation of re-worked acoustic versions of all their biggest hits, and it’s a great listen from start to finish!

The energy of the band is palpably audible in these recordings, and it’s clear they had a lot of fun blowing off steam after the lockdown period.

Also, frontman Dante Gizzi’s desire to prove himself against the old material really shines through.

Gizzi played bass and provided backing vocals during Gun’s first run in the 1980s and 1990s, eventually taking over lead vocals in 2009 when former frontman Mark Rankin declined his invitation to be part of the re-union.

He brings a very different vocal style, replacing Rankin’s familiar baritone with a raspy high register which sounds like a cross between Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose and My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way – a drastic change of styles which shouldn’t really work, and yet somehow it does!

Oozing the confidence of a man who has performed these songs live for several years now, you can’t help but be impressed by the way he bends his voice around the lyric “I don’t care about money” on classic track Higher Ground in a way which Rankin never did, showing us that he’s not just there to sing-by-numbers, but instead to breath new life into these battle-tested tracks.

Also, album opener Coming Home is vastly superior in the format featured on The Calton Songs, and I expect this version of the track will become a fan favourite. The original was cut from Gun’s debut album Taking On The World (1989), but in an acoustic setting and with Gizzi’s higher vocal range it really takes on a life of its own and becomes a potential hit single for the band some 32 years after it’s inception.

Other standout moments include an absolutely electric version of Inside Out, a new take on Money (Everybody Loves Her), and an acoustic rendition of Crazy You, which was the best track on the disastrous 1997 album which broke the original line-up apart.

Surprisingly, though, the album highlight is Don’t Say It’s Over.

I say “surprisingly” because the original version of this track on Swagger (1994) contains what is arguably the best guitar riff Jools Gizzi ever wrote, and somehow Gun have been able to re-work the musical arrangement to this track without the riff, and in doing so, Don’t Say It’s Over transitions from a killer radio anthem into a haunting love song. It sounds insanely good.

All in all, The Calton Songs is a success.

It’ll be best remembered as the catalyst for getting Gun back into the studio and eventually writing new music again after a difficult time during lockdown, but there’s plenty here to shout about.

Gun deserve a lot of credit for having the gall to re-record their old classics (especially after changing singer), so perhaps the biggest compliment I can dish out here is to say that if there are any newer fans of the band who are hearing these songs before hearing the original versions, there’s actually a high percentage chance that they’ll prefer them!

In summary:

Re-working your classic material is never an easy task (especially when you’ve changed singers!), so it’s very impressive that Gun have been able to succeed and even improve some of the source material in the process.

The Calton Songs receives 8/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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