Written by: Evelyn Barr
Release Date: 8th April 2023
Since forming during a Zoom call in the lockdown period of 2020, these five friends decided to make their music mark on the world in their own musical style.
They have released two previous EPs, the first – Dear Greens and Blues in March 2022 and this was followed by Mid Life Crisis in July of the same year. But Older Stronger Better is their debut album. The album is made up of 11 songs and lasts for nearly 55 minutes so the listener is definitely not short changed of listening pleasure here.
Having listened to this album several times I can safely say that there is not a bad or filler in song in this album and I enjoyed each and every one of them.
There is a definitely back to the 70s/80s feel about them with my ears picking vibes of Pink Floyd and Dire Straits. They songs are written about the real emotions of life, about sadness, joy, happiness and pain.
This album opens with Nothing More, Nothing Less and the keyboard work on this track was amazing, I really enjoyed listening to this one and was interested to hear the rest of the album. The very bluesy based The One That Got Away is the next track and this is a song about love and loss. The lyrics are ones that most people can relate to in some way and the song is just so smooth. This is followed by the more rock feeling Mercy. It’s a heavier track and again it takes the listener on the road of raw emotions of love and rejection and I particularly loved the keyboards on this track. Symptomatic is a slow, bluesy song about love and the feelings involved and is one of my favourites on this album. Next up is the more funky sounding Doghouse and it’s a fairly upbeat track about a failed relationship and certainly gets the fingers clicking. Then we are back to the blues with This Old City. This song begins with a long instrumental in a very Pink Floyd kind of style and continues on that vein throughout the song and for this reason I really enjoyed this one. The album title track takes the listener straight back to the blues with with these songs having a real mellow, smooth groove and sublime riffs to them before taking the listener on another aural journey to the funk groove with the second to last track You Got Too Close and I actually found myself having a bit of a kitchen boogie to this one as that’s where my Alexa is! The album ends with another favourite In Love With Life Again and this is a song all about falling in love with life again and all that’s in it to be celebrated and I really did enjoy this track.
Bison Hip are a new band to my ears and I must say that their music made a very welcome change to my usual genres.
Did I enjoy this album? Yes I did! Would I go and see them live? Yes I would!