Six albums in Vega are sounding great and opener ‘Blind’ has the sort of assured swagger that sets your mind at rest that this will be another classic: it’s a song with ‘stamped on’ Melodic Rocking class that is made to sing along to.
And if you were wondering about quality and if they could keep it up, fear not this could even be their best sounding release to date and working with producers The Graves Brothers”’ certainly seems to have given them a harder edge even to the mid-tempo melodies of tracks like ‘(I Don’t Need) Perfection’.
The title track ‘Grit Your Teeth’ is inescapable and one of those songs that sounds eerily familiar and the groovy swing of ‘Man On A Mission’ (I think that’s the third album this month with a track of this title on it) is pretty damn cool too; whilst ‘Don’t Fool Yourself’ adds some, dare I say it, groove and danceability!
By the time the slow burning and very 80’s vibes of ‘Consequence Of Having A Heart’ kick in I’m starting to get worried – it’s been three years since the last outing ‘Only Human’ and I’m already feeling this is yet another leap forward.
On cue the assured rocker ‘This One’s For You’ kicks in and stakes its claim, and the slower ‘Battles Ain’t A War’ that follows makes a fight of it showing that Vega is capable of producing the goods with the slow ones too. That just leaves us with three! ‘Save Me From Myself’ brings some ‘blue sky’ rock and ‘How We Live’ fires it up again and crowns it with one of the best sing-along choruses on the album.
The final track ‘Done With Me’ has a fired up Tom Petty feel about it and works beautifully bringing the fun and a real pop savvy to close.
If you didn’t think Vega was serious competition for the Modern Hard Rock crown, think again. This is an excess of credentials.
9/10
Tracklist: Blind | (I Don’t Need) Perfection |Grit Your Teeth | Man On A Mission |Don’t Fool Yourself |Consequence Of Having A Heart |This One’s For You | Battles Ain’t A War | Save Me From Myself | How We Live |Done With Me
Line-up: Nick Workman – Vocals | Tom Martin – Bass And Guitar| Marcus Thurston – Guitar | James Martin – Keyboards | Mikey Kew – Guitar | Martin Hutchison – Drums
