Zinny Zan - Lullabies for the Masses (2022) Hi-Res

Back in the day I was a huge Shotgun Messiah fan, and man that 1989 debut ‘Welcome to Bop City’ was in a class of its own! It came as a bit of a shock a year later when singer Zinny Zan left the band as they had a label that seemed reasonably supportive, were touring and had just had a No. 1 single in Sweden with ‘Shout It Out’. Heck they even dented the Billboard Top 100! Tim Skold and Harry Cody of course ventured on with Skold taking over vocals to produce the almost as cool ‘Second Coming’ and the ‘I Want More’ covers EP before they became all industrial for 1993’s Violent New Breed.

I finally managed to speak to Zinny a few years ago when in 2012 he put together ‘Shotgun’ with Stixx (who drummed on the debut), Chris Laney and Rob Marcello to celebrate 25 years of ‘Welcome to Bop City’. But in all honesty things have been quite quiet for some time now and after wonderful stints with Easy Action, Shotgun Messiah and the classic Zan Clan that’s a shame. The last I heard was of a Swedish language solo record in 2017 titled Är Ni Kvar Därute? (“Are You Still Out There?”) that I haven’t managed to listen to as yet.

It’s great therefore to have this one land on the doormat! Recorded under the name Zinny Zan and featuring Stefan Bergstrom on lead guitar and Hogge Calmroth both formerly of band Skintrade ‘Lullabies for the Masses’ is a Classic Rock album with plenty of drive and tons of attitude.

Opening with first single ‘Heartbreak City’ things are looking very good indeed. A chugging mid-tempo rocker with a great riff and catchy chorus, it’s ticking boxes and whilst it may well be more Hard Rock than Sleaze it’s a wonderful welcome back. I like it. There’s even more urgency and edge to ‘Bombs Away’ that sails a line between vintage Ace Frehley and Lynch Mob, still sticking to that mid-tempo pace but getting a little Bluesier with a Lynch-like riff to hang it all on.

‘It’s No Good’ has a ‘spacier’ feel, shuffling in and setting up a groove that’s a little dark, a little pop, and spiked with stabs of guitar. It’s crazily danceable, slower and rather unexpected, but a nice song maybe even something you could imagine a band like Reckless Love bringing to the boil. Love the guitars too! (It is it transpires a Depeche Mode cover but having no interest in that band I can’t say I’ve heard the original). It brushes up against the acoustic-led ‘Heal the Pain’ that’s pure classic Rock ballad territory. It’s another great song and it underlines a rather lower key more classic rock sounding album than you might have imagined.

The dead centre of the album flickers with the atmospheric ‘Nobody Gets Out Of Here Alive’ and the early Kiss-like ‘Welcome to the Show’. One thing’s for certain though – this is not the sleazed-out album you might have expected, it’s also less frenetic than you might imagine, but it inhabits that mid-tempo space so well and with so much variety. It may well be classic rock technically but its far more interesting and there’s no Hammond in sight. Zan has managed to make an album sound like ‘garage classic rock’ – and the rough edges are wonderful to behold. The more I listen to the more of a seventies vibe a get, and there’s definitely a nod to Ace Frehley and his early compositions but also a tab of Aerosmith especially on songs like ‘Let it Rock’.

We’re back to acoustic briefly before the lush instrumentation washes through ‘Goodbye To Yesterday’ am almost singer-songwriter vibe pervades and Zinny gives it his best croon. It’s all rather good and all rather grown up and that’s the beauty of this release for those that have grown up with him. We close with the darker almost old school Gothic ‘The One’ an alternative rocker with grit and menace. It works so well you wonder if he has anything similar up his sleeve.

Zinny Zan have released a new single from their upcoming album The new track is a cover version of Depeche Mode´s classic hit, "It’s No Good", the second single from the Swedes' new studio album, Lullabies For The Masses.

"Stefan and I like to do the unexpectable, and I do not think anyone saw this coming from us,” says Zinny.

Stefan adds: “We love the song and its suggestive feeling and thought that if we added our ZZ spice to this song with a more distinctive drumbeat, some cool guitars, and Zinny’s ability to go from really low range to a brighter voice - we thought that we could do justice to the Depeche Mode hit and add some freshness to the sound as well.”