Tattoos & Alibis

Those familiar with his past incarnation as the mainman with hard rock/punk outfit The Almighty might be surprised to hear Warwick’s first solo outing. While still working within a standard rock framework, he has cast his stylistic net wider to encompass country, folk and even pop influences on this strong collection of songs.
Recorded in Dublin with production courtesy of Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot and instrumental assistance from a host of luminaries, including Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham and Hothouse Flower Peter O’Toole, the album sounds fantastic, sonically. The guitar textures are layered high in the mix but not to the exclusion of Warwick’s confident, assertive vocals. Though he can sound a little too much like Bryan Adams or John Cougar Mellencamp at times (especially on ‘Can’t Live With Maybe’) his rock solid voice is clearly his trump card. The songwriting is pretty impressive too, mainly informed here by hardcore country rock on songs like ‘It Always Rains On Sunday’ which features tasty bottleneck guitar and ‘Nothing Is Real’ goes even further with banjo.
With its twangy guitar, ‘Three Sides To Every Story’ could be a Steve Earle outtake, ‘Minor Miracles’ veers towards the cow-punk of Jason & The Scorchers, while the title track is a Southern rock tour-de-force reminiscent of everyone from The Allmans to Timbuk 3 (anyone remember ‘Future’s So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades’?)