Having breached the Top 10 of the UK album chart with their second album, , Llanelli quintet make no bones about going straight for the FM-rock jugular on this follow-up – even if there isn’t a lot of FM around to air their arena-friendly choruses these days. Trad-rock tropes abound from the moment Secret Drug starts by renting out ’s thumping rhythm section and borrowing a big fat chorus. has a 1985 feel to it that will press potent nostalgic buttons, and the title track even includes a key change.
We also get the obligatory pace-changing ballad as Elles Bailey duets on , but the band would perhaps be wise to keep one foot on the accelerator while their eye is on the pop-rock prize, as the adrenalised suggests they don’t need to court us with choruses the whole time in order to thrill. Johnny is a regular contributor to and magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues.
He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as and and magazines such as and, of course, and . Former Great White frontman Jack Russell dead at 63 Power pop icon, DJ and novelist Greg Kihn dead at 75 "A real labour of love": Troy Kingi pays tribute to desert rock on Leatherman & The Mojave Green.
