Marina Rocks: "S.O.S. Texas" (2025) CD Review

Now more than ever this country needs some strong female energy, some strong female voices, because things are all messed up, perhaps even beyond what we expected, beyond what we imagined when that rapist was allowed back into the White House. Basically we need a woman to take this country by the throat and shake it until all the garbage bleeds out and the bastards fall to their knees. We need a woman to rock this country. Marina Rocks has just released an excellent new album which should certainly help. Titled S.O.S. Texas, it features all original material. Not just Texas, but this whole country is clearly sending out a distress signal. Will anyone receive it? Will anyone help this damned sinking vessel?  Marina Rocks plays some mean guitar, but that's not all. She also plays keyboards, drums, percussion and bass on this album. She is joined by Lloyd Maines on acoustic guitar, mandolin, acoustic slide guitar and bass. There are a few other musicians who join her on various tracks.

The album opens with "It's All Messed Up," which comes at us with a sense of urgency, which we feel in that rhythm, even before that compelling first line, "Well, she called him one night, she said I think I'm going to die." And things are in motion. Aden Buebeck plays bass guitar on this one. Check out these lines: "She had a squirrel in her purse, she had evil in her eye/He had his hands on the wheel, he was holding on tight/But he never would have guessed what she'd do that night." Interestingly, that isn't the first line to feature the word "squirrel," but it is the one that especially stands out. What an image. And in a strange way we come to identify with that animal, trapped in a situation over which we have no control. "Hang on, hang on, hang on," she urges us partway through. And then she asks, "Are you going to be good little sheep?" As this song progresses, we feel more empowered, more energized by her vocals, but the guitar work, and by the end we are ready to go out and so something. For the song now seems to address larger concerns, the warped state of this nation, and of the world. "It's all messed up," indeed. This is a great rock song to open the album

Then we get "S.O.S." The term "SOS," meaning the distress signal, as I understand it, doesn't actually stand for anything. But as Marina Rocks puts periods after each letter, she clearly intends the letters to stand for something, perhaps "Same Old Shit," as in the Dutch Melrose song. This song is about music and the ridiculous demands on a songwriter. The songwriter is told, "Come on and write another, yeah, write another tequila love song" and "You see, you're not quite this and you're not quite that/Hey, how would she look in just a cowboy hat," the latter delivered as a sort of cool spoken word. Another line that stands out is: "He's going to whitewash the truth so he can buy up the world." This song is seriously cool and biting, feeling like the needed slap to music executives who don't give a shit about music and are moved only by money. And it features some really good guitar work. Then the first lines of "The Hollywood Sign" are delivered a cappella: "I was driving down Mulholland/When I saw the Hollywood sign/Will you meet me, will you greet me/Where the clouds and the rainbows shine." Many of the lines are delivered as spoken word, as she is telling us a story. It feels like a personal story. "I was lost in the city of angels/And so I lay there on the ground/Rain was pouring in my face/And I heard a deafening sound/My heart was beating fast with pain/And I really thought that I could die." That last line reminds us of the opening lines of the album's first tracks. I suppose thoughts of death abound these days. Many songs take place in Los Angeles, but not many take place in L.A. in the rain. This track features Gary Weldon on harmonica. He delivers some beautiful work. That lead in the middle is particularly wonderful. And Alex Rodriguez joins Marina Rocks on fretless bass guitar. "You see, repetition clouds reality/And you'll find that maybe you're wrong."

"I Don't Know" is a cool instrumental tune, its first section promising something wonderful to follow, as it gathers its energy, and gathers us in, preparing us for the ride. But we soon realize we are already on the ride. It was happening from that opening moment. This track too features excellent guitar work. In fact, that work is the main thrust of the piece. As the track seems to end, we feel it is much too soon, and indeed, it starts to take off again after that, though only briefly before suddenly coming to a close. "How did we ever get this way?" Marina then asks at the beginning of "One More Song," and I can't help but apply that question to the country as a whole. This track has a good bluesy vibe at the start, and then opens into something bigger, something more encompassing, with some sweet folk elements. This one features mandolin, and has a positive, uplifting feel to it. Pat Manske is on percussion here. "Hey, don't you tell me the secrets of my life/That should be, that should be up to me/That should be, that should be up to me." As a songwriter, she promises, "I won't ever lie to you," and we know that to be true. We hear it in every notes she sings.

A good rhythm is established immediately on "Mind's Eye," a song that begins in a phone booth, one with a seat. I'm not sure when was the last time I saw a phone booth. They've largely disappeared, as everyone is expected to own a cell phone these days. Oh, I sometimes long for the days of rotary phones, for no one told me to "download an app" on my phone then. "I wrap my arms around her/That's all that I can offer." This track features a totally catchy guitar part in the middle, and there is a bit of a jam at the end. That's followed by "Slap Happy." As it begins, it feels like it is already in the process of building toward something, and her first line,"Say yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah," feels like it could be in the middle of a jam. This has an interesting effect, dropping us into the middle of some action, some movement. "She wouldn't let me die if I tried," she sings here, then adds, "She is my 'shero.'" "Shero" is, obviously, not a real word, but a female hero is what we desperately need. This track contains some really great stuff on guitar.

"Starlight" is the album's second (and final) instrumental track. It has a gentler vibe as it begins, almost like a lullaby for someone at the end of a rough day, the music helping to put the troubles into perspective, easing us out of the day so that tomorrow will be open to being better. The album wraps up with a second version of "One More Song," and so we again are asked, and again wonder, "How did we ever get this way?" The vocals are even more at the fore in this version. The song's final line, "Everybody needs one more song," is delivered a cappella, and we feel like song here is equated with day, with breath. We need one more moment, one more breath, just a little more life. We are not ready for this whole thing to be over, not yet.

CD Track List

1. It's All Messed Up
2. S.O.S.
3. The Hollywood Sign
4. I Don't Know
5. One More Song
6. Mind's Eye
7. Slap Happy
8. Starlight
9. One More Song (Re-wind)

S.O.S. Texas was released on April 4, 2025.