I’ve mentioned this before, The Iran-based alternative ROCK band The Ways is one of the freshest acts to appear on the Iranian music scene in the past twenty years! We haven’t had such thought-through introduction of a new fusion in our music for a good while. The Ways do everything correctly and in accordance with the international guidelines of their genre, yet remain enough Iranian in style. Considering their stationary situation and relatively limited means, this is not the easiest task to pull off. But due to the passion and hunger that you can easily sense in their performance, a combination which makes an ambition that is more on an international level than an Iranian, they manage to make the most of least with elegance. The Ways is the first Iranian act that I’ve come across to both look and sound like ROCK stars! They have got both the image (each and every member) and the music pinned down on quality, not to mention a theatrically charismatic front-man with a suitable air of pretentiousness and vanity that demands your undivided attention!
The Ways is a worthy Iranian counterpart to Mando Diao, The Killers and Kings of Leon. I truly, deeply hope that they keep developing cumulatively in their own paved path inspired by their international sources and don’t deviate in some sort of tempted attempt to suddenly conquer the entire Iranian market by inadequate crossovers and incompatible collaborations. We have had enough of such disappointments through the past decades! They do have the opportunity, as well as artistic and charismatic means, to finally legitimise the ROCK genre in a cultural setting that has time and time again proved itself too rigid and reluctant to accommodate such musicality. But I’m rather confident that this particular formula can work, if only they continue doing things right. Their debut album “Stress” is now available for free download from their website with a rather subpar cover artwork, but cool page design. The album in its entirety does not, in my opinion, represent the potential that I see in the band today. Perhaps due to much of the material being from some time ago, very little of it resonates The Ways of today. While too much of it reminds of Reza Yazdani’s earlier albums! Especially in its lyrical style and Kaveh’s ornamentation. These references can’t be heard in the newer tracks like “Khab Bazi”, however, so I really hope that we wont hear them in future productions either.
I had hoped “Otaghe Aabi” to be an adaptation of Sohrab Sepehri’s single prose opus but it wasn’t, most likely inspired by it considering how the lyrics start. By the way, in the booklet the song “Khab Bazi” has been credited to Kaveh Afagh for its composition, but I recognise its music from a song by a female singer (in English) played at my gym! In particular 0:40-1:00 and it goes something like this, “… They call me a black cat, don’t rub me the wrong way …”. Any idea what song I’m talking about?! If so drop me an e-mail please, thank you.
