Winchester 7 & The Runners – Catacomb Songs

Today, we have something completely different from what we get used to before. At least, that’s my impression, and I cannot remember when we had a ukulele rock band on these pages. The story of Winchester 7 & The Runners is unique as well. Winchester 7 is the creative force behind the band. He’s the real person who made up other band members just for fun. Each made-up band member had an imagined identity and duty inside the band, so Winchester 7 & The Runners is actually a solo project that pretends to be a regular band. At first, you would think this project sounds like a joke, but Winchester 7 & The Runners nurture a decent rock sound, decorated with healthy dosages of humor. After all, a good laugh is what we need these days when we’re surrounded by negative vibes, isolation, restrictions, and pandemic.

Catacomb Songs includes seven ukulele rock songs. Perhaps some purists would like to argue if this is the full-length, mini-album, or extended play, but that’s not important right now. The only important thing is the fact that these songs sound fine by any definition. Of course, this is still a ukulele rock, so there’s no actual ferocity, power, energy like in classic hard rock, rock’n’roll, or garage rock music, but that was the intent. Ukulele rock leans more towards indie rock and indie pop, so this is calmy music that would appeal to a broader auditorium than classic hard rock. You will also stumble upon some similarities with nineties rock, especially when the fuzzy, raw, heavily distorted ukulele appears in the mix. Still, Winchester 7 & The Runners keep their music soothing, relaxing, calmy as much as possible, and Catacomb Songs is a recording you would probably play on lazy Sundays.

However, Winchester 7 & The Runners don’t stop there. Quite the contrary, more ingredients lurk around throughout the album. You may notice how some compositions burst with art-rock, art-punk, post-punk, rock’n’roll sound, but these elements serve more as accentuations during particular songs. Some songs go far beyond rock and lean more towards pop music, but Winchester 7 & The Runners thought about everything, so these tunes are not spoiling the primary direction of the album. As you probably suspected at the beginning, Winchester 7 & The Runners love good humor, so the lyrics are humorous as well. These witty lyric aesthetics perfectly go with their version of ukulele rock, so if this genre is your jam, consider checking out Catacomb Songs. The album came out a couple of days ago, and it’s available for listening to on all streaming services.