Waiting For Helen - Round and Round

Hear The Track Here

Waiting For Helen are a five piece band from New Jersey (Jerry DeCarlo, Helen Harak, Tony Mazza, Pete Salomone and Joe Van Winkle) and if Tony Mazza's name is ringing more bells than most it's because I have reviewed him under a few different guises of late. Waiting For Helen is his main band though and so far I have reviewed three of their tracks (I think) and been pleasantly surprised at all of them. To be sure, there hasn't been a track that has knocked me on my ass yet but judging by the quality of work from this band that may only be a question of time. They are a real working band, I am a consummate rock animal, how could it fail?

Waiting For Helen are obviously qualified musicians so the only thing to really judge them on is the strength of their material and - so far - they haven't come up with anything that I would consider to be outstanding. Now that doesn't mean that their tracks are bad, far from it. Songwise, however, I have yet to hear them do something that I felt stretched them. Mind you, Round and Round is a damn fine track; more especially if you have a taste for the rock scene just as it was morphing from out and out pop into something with much more bite. All under the influence of some hefty drug taking by an entire generation...

For me, the most satisfying part of Round and Round is that it could have come from Jefferson Airplane circa 1967, its almost eerie how well Waiting For Helen have captured that moment. The combination of retro guitar sounds and the vocal interplay between Tony Mazza and Helen Harak is wonderful to hear and the more I played it the more I thought that. I have a suspicion that I will be hanging on to this track simply because of that evocation of the past, although - as I say - the song has a lot to recommend it to. So while it's not the jaw dropper that I am waiting for from this band, this is a bloody fine example of what they do.

Evocative musical throwback. Highly Recommended Psychedelic Rock