The Brought Low are a rough midpoint between
the Black Crowes' unabashed
Faces worship and the ironic retro-glam posturing of
the Darkness:
Right on Time is the sound of a band that's deliberately re-creating a long-past time and place, but this dose of '70s heavy rock sounds entirely sincere.
The Brought Low's obvious influences include
Lynyrd Skynyrd,
Bachman-Turner Overdrive,
the James Gang, and
Bad Company: the album even ends with a churchy R&B-influenced rave-up called "There's a Light" powered by a
Gregg Allman-style organ part. It's hard not to think of
the Rutles,
Neil Innes' note-perfect re-creation of
the Beatles' sound and spirit, or of the plethora of new bands since the turn of the millennium whose sole raison d'être is to pay tribute to the post-punk era, but this quartet led by singer/guitarist Benjamin Howard Smith -- a fine blue-collar Rock Dude name -- are so palpably sincere on tracks like "A Better Life" and "Vernon Jackson" (a tribute to the rough and tumble section of Queens that the band calls home) that it's impossible to dismiss
Right on Time as a calculated pose. ~ Stewart Mason