Love, Tears & Dynamite - LESLY’S DYNAMITE

Love, Tears & Dynamite 

Artist: LESLY’S DYNAMITE 

Release Date: 1st may 2025 

Label: TESSY RECORDS 

Review Date: 7th May 2025 

Lesly’s Dynamite delight us with a 12 track album of some great original songs and some lesser known covers delivered in their own unique 21st century way. Love, Tears & Dynamite will take you on a musical adventure with boogie, jazz, blues all shook up with plenty of good old fashioned Rock’n’Roll.  

The Band: 

Drums: Ada Scholl 

Sax: Markus Poetschke  

Piano: Annett Lipske 

Double Bass: Maja Malysch 

Guitar: Tim Domnowsky  

Vocal: Valeska Kunath (Miss Lesly K.) 

1/WE’RE DYNAMITE 

The opening track showcases what we can expect from the rest of the album in a brilliant way. The start of the song tricks us into thinking we are about to a very different track,  great toms and an edgy guitar riff supported by a single held note on the sax………. And then the sax leads us up the scale to a song which is less edgy and much, much more boogie. We’re Dynamite is about the band and (I assume) the regular occurrence of the band’s name being mis-spelled or the band genre being wrongly assumed. This is a great track, it is fun, energetic, full of sound and with a great sense of humour. Watch out for the brilliant and unexpected break in the middle. 

2/ROCK’N’ROLL LOVE 

Rock’n’Roll Love is a song full of groove driven along by a great shuffle beat and boogie piano. It is another original which takes a traditional structure but makes it feel 2025. The saxophone solo is worth listening to again and again and watch out for the vocal ‘solo’ just before this. This reinforces that Lesly’s Dynamite are having fun and I have no doubt that their audiences do too. 

3/CAUGHT IN A TWIST 

Caught In A Twist changes the sound dynamic quite dramatically but don’t think that this is bad, it absolutely is not, in fact it demonstrates the variation of Lesly’s Dynamite’s repertoire. The song is a sassy late 50s style ballad which intros with a lovely sax and piano combination. The song lyrics are focussed on a relationship quandary and these are delivered with great emotion and passion. I absolutely love this song. 

4/ IT’S ALRIGHT BABY 

It’s Alright Baby brings us back to rock’n’roll in a great way with a rasping sax and boogie woogie piano intro. In this song the vocal throughout are delivered throughout in harmony which is a very interesting approach which works particularly well. The chorus is really catchy, really simple and will be looping in your head for the rest of the evening… trust me, I know.  

5/ LOVE STILL LIVES ON 

Love Still Lives On lyrically takes us on a 1950s journey of how music brought together a boy & girl and even though music may have changed through the years, their love lives on.  The verse has a very swing feel however the chorus is delivered differently using harmonies and creating a different feel in-line with the lyrics. This is a very catchy song with a very creative approach. 

6/ LONELY STRANGERS 

Lonely Strangers changes the dynamic once again and introduces us to a guest vocalist (Ray Allen) to perform the duet. This a very catchy ballad which you will want to listen to again and again but also might struggle to categorise it’s genre. It has a bit of Country, a bit of 60’s Western, a bit of California 1969 however it doesn’t really matter because this is a great song and again demonstrates the band’s versatility and lack of fear to push the boundaries. 

7/ ROCKET GAL 

Rocket Gal is a B-Shakers cover which previously appeared on their collaboration album Swap’N’Roll with the aforementioned and The Booze Bombs  (BTW: which I also strongly recommend buying).  This is a song has great backing vocals, some amazing piano playing and creative lead vocals….Yea Ha! 

8/ WHAT IF? 

What If? has a bit of everything. It has a brilliant infectious rhythm, it has multi vocal chorus, it has humour and towards the end it even changes the vibe completely from swing to out-right rock’n’roll. This is excellent, intelligent and audibly infectious, it would not sound out of place if it were in a John Walters musical 

9/ I STILL CRY 

If you are going to cover a song by your mates The B-Shakers it would be rude not to cover a song by The Booze Bombs…wouldn’t it? I Still Cry is a sad ballad which is delivered with a bit of a swagger complimented by some excellent sax and keys. 

10/ HEELS ON NAILS 

Heels On Nails has a jazz swing which you could imagine being played on the stage at a 40’s Speak Easy. Valeska’s vocals are sung powerfully and perfectly matching the theme of the lyrics. I don’t often recognise the role that pianists play but I recommend that you listen to the piano playing throughout this song….brilliant 

11/ MISSUNDERSTOOD 

Lesly’s Dynamite provides us with another unexpected classic which at first I thought was a cover but is actually an original penned by Annett and Miss Lesly.  Similar to Caught In a Twist we are entertained with a late 50’s early 60’s style song which would fit beautifully as a soundtrack to a film of the same era. The bongos and the male & female backing vocals compliment the overall feel and help to make this song very special indeed.  

12/ PUSH THAT BUTTON 

Just as We’re Dynamite set our expectations on what to expect at the start of this album, Push That Button has the role of bringing the album to an end. This song has a very clever modern meaning (listen to the lyrics) but is delivered in a very traditional way, a way that we would of course expect from Lesly’s Dynamite. This is a fun song, it has a traditional jazz/swing feel and is a very fitting closure of a great album. Don’t forget, Push That Button! 

SUMMARY 

This is a great listen and will satisfy many musical tastes. I had expectations before listening and I am pleased to say they were exceeded. This is not 12 different songs delivered in the same style, this is an exploration of retro musical genres spanning several decades and delivered with an attitude from 2025. 

RECOMMENDATION 

I will be listening to this again, and again, and again, and again…. and I highly recommend that you give LOVE, TEARS & DYNAMITE a listen too. Irrespective of your musical preference this will entertain you, it will surprise you and it will leave you feeling good. 

Reviewed by: Cal Ross 

 Lesly's Dynamite 

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