Is that Bad Company? The smooth Blues Rock stylings of opener ‘Stay Close To Me’ might hint at that. It sports a great groove, a cool vocal and harmonies and a feel that takes you somewhere between Bad Co and Huey Lewis and the echoes of both remain throughout!
‘Shotgun’ that follows that rather stylish opener might be Bluesier but it also has that slickness and smoothness about it that is starting to feel like a trademark, if I had to level a minor criticism it’s that it is just missing that ‘something’ like a killer solo or break down but it’s hard to level criticism about a song so well executed. As it is it’s a nice appetizer.
‘Don’t Throw It All Away’ is more soulful adds some nice horns and just shimmies and shines over a great bass-line; whilst ‘Electricity’ has a Rhythm and Blues flavour like Huey Lewis (sorry but they do name-check ‘Power of Love’ intentionally or not in the lyrics) grew up next door to Doctor Feelgood.
And it just keeps on giving: ‘Hard For You’ slips into a wonderful summery sound that keeps that thought and ‘Step By Step’ gets even funkier with some great guitar prominent in the mix that shows how Soul and Blues and Rock managed to inhabit that same wonderful space a few decades ago before labels and genres put the skids on that cross-pollination. It also sports some sublime guitar which here is thankfully and fittingly allowed to fly.
The ‘second half’ of the album kicks off with ‘Night Creatures’ which is christened with the sound of thunder and an aspect that is part US radio rock and part Dire Straits,a lot of passion in there too. ‘Black Widow’ keeps with the creepy crawly theme and is strangely subdued and if I’m honest I’m not quite sure about it.
‘You’ve Still Got It’ though rights the ship with a solid Bluesy rocker that again has that sublime swagger, it’s one of my picks of the album, as is the rocking ‘That’s Love’ that follows. And to be honest the short instrumental ‘Salute to Micky’ which presumably features a snatch of the very man live on stage is a wonderful tribute to a fallen comrade, though oddly placed as the penultimate track.
Closer ‘Into the Fire’ leaves you with an engaging and rather Prog-tastic final word that features some great guitar and even though it’s rather out of character makes you wonder what else these guys have in their arsenal. 46 years ago they did after all support Queen at The Rainbow…
There’s also a quite remarkable tale behind this album that says a lot about this labour of love. Rather than recount that here read it for yourself at the band website.
8.5/10