I'm never sure how to correctly use certain subgenres. If I were to guess, The Gun Club would be an alternative rock band. They use chunky chords like a punk band but they feel much poppier than that, almost like new wave but without thick synths. They definitely sound plenty 80s, but the lack of synths and slight blues twang gives them slight 70s rock band edge.
"Promise Me" has a violin on the backing track that just drones out one long sustained note. It was so hypnotizing, I also fell asleep at my desk. Here's a charming lyric sample: "She's like heroin to me, she can not miss a vein." The last thing I need The Gun Club to remind me of is The Stooges and Fun House, but deeper into this album I go the worse it gets. Halfway through "For The Love Of Ivy", the instruments get really quiet, and the lead singer says, "Take it down, y'all". I guess I can see more similarities between The Stooges and The Gun Club. Both use simple dirty guitar licks and don't do much to expand beyond a simple garage band sound.
Fire Of Love is iconic in that The Gun Club were really the first band to combine American Roots music (blues) with punk rock. It's not really that big of a jump, since blues rock had existed for decades prior. But as the emergence of punk featured a ton of flat-out trash, it's not surprising that injecting a little bit of easy-going blues was seen as revolutionary. I personally am not very enamored with The Gun Club. 2 stars.
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