Crosson
Live at the Orpheum

I think that retro rockers shouldn’t take themselves too seriously, I think it should be a little bit parodic as taking such music seriously feels a bit ridiculous to me. Crosson certainly looks parodic with a singer that is a bit over the top and two girls dancing and backup singing on the stage, who does that? The Australians it seems, and they do it in Sydney. Crosson has four albums in their discography, one from 2008 and then 2016, 2018, and 2020. Now comes this live album in both audio release as well as blu-ray where Lord Tim from the band Lord has done lots of mastering and editing.

The music is simple and straightforward retro rock that oozes of the eighties and stuff, you can think of the similar bands as well as Kiss and many other like them to have a reference of how it sounds. The singer looks parodic and some lyrics are pretty parodic as well, it is fun in a way. Also well-performed and well-produced with pretty varied stuff from their own songs to covers of Abba songs and Queen, the video material looks pretty good too but I would have liked to see the audience more to connect a bit more to that – the black and white intercutting is a nice touch though. I think they probably were opening for some other band considering that the show is just around 45 minutes, headlining shows are usually a bit longer than that, but it is good for a record.

It is an entertaining album in many regards, the songs work and I like how they are slightly parodic in their style while still making very solid music. The retro rock of their own is catchy and good and then they spice it up with songs that we all know, We Will Rock you is not a great cover, but the Abba song Money Money Money is great. So it is an entertaining album, but not a fantastic one, the highlights is probably that sense of parody and taking oneself less seriously than some. I would almost be sad if I were to find out that Crosson is dead serious, it doesn’t make their music less entertaining.

If you like the similar stuff you should like this album and Crosson, they hardly offer anything fantastic but this album should be entertaining enough to be enjoyed for a while. Perhaps that is all you really need?

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