Clairy Browne and the Bangin' Rackettes - Baby Caught the Bus

The debut album, Baby Caught the Bus, by East Coast outfit Clairy Browne and the Bangin' Rackettes is soul, baby, pure and simple.

After their recent national tour and amazing (and much lauded) appearances at the Wave Rock Weekender festival in WA, Clairy Browne and her Rackettes have left one hell of an impression and their debut album has delivered as much punch and swing as their live show does.

Opening up with ‘Love Letter’, this ballsy, brassy track sets a flirty tone for the rest of the album. Although Clairy Browne is not the principal songwriter, this sassy singer has a dirty soul voice straight out of Motown. They may not be a household name as yet but smart money says that this a band destined for great things – stay tuned.

Title track, ‘Baby Caught the Bus’, could stand proud next to the likes of Diana Ross and Etta James and you are left in no doubt that Ms Browne is going to go ‘get her gone man’, while the more sultry ‘She plays up to you’ is a stand-up-for-what’s-yours kind of a track that is sure to be to many a jealous woman what ‘Heard it through the grapevine’ is to cuckolded men.

A cover of the Nancy Sinatra classic ‘Bang Bang’ is fantastic, but frankly unnecessary. The strength of bassist Jules Pascoe and Rackette Simone Page Jones’ song-writing is such that a cover sounds cheap amongst it all.

That being said, the cover of Salt-N-Pepa’s ‘Whatta Man’ (not on the album but available for free download from the website) is an absolute cracker, and is a good example of how a cover, when done well, does not detract from the original but gives you two great things where there was previously only one.

You have been warned. Clairy Browne is bringing soul back and she is taking no prisoners.