Pursehouse’s humble musings

When I first heard about Young Heart Attack’s split in 2006 a sudden rush of melancholy came over me. After all, their debut album ‘Mouthful Of Love’ was pretty much my soundtrack to the summer of 2004. Driving round with the windows rolled down and ‘Starlight’ blaring out on the stereo (which may I add was turned all the way up to ’11’ of course) so when I heard that a plucky British label (Not On Your Radio) had decided to give them a 2^nd outing I was chuffed to say the least. I won’t lie to you though, I was a tad apprehensive putting the CD into my laptop for the first play with thoughts such as “Can they do it again?” and “Is the memory of my excitable youth acting as a potential melpomene for disappointment?” rolling around in my head, but then the unforgiving drum roll intro kicked in for the Albums title track ‘Rock and Awe’ and all worries were cast aside. An instant grin came flooding across my face; I was 18 years old again.

This is a bloody enjoyable album which actually shows real progression from their first LP. Not as rough-around-the-edges as Mouthful of Love and the songs a tad more polished and with far better production qualities throughout. Songs to point out include ‘Munki’, ‘Runaway’ and ‘Hell On Earth’ which are guaranteed shoe-in’s for the next mix CD I make.

Be warned though; if you like Foals then you’ll fucking hate this. It’s not clever and it doesn’t try to be. It knows what it is and it sticks to it rather unapologetically; it’s rock and roll. Enjoy it or shut the fuck up and listen to something else.

Looks like the summer of 2008 now has its soundtrack sorted for this humble reviewer.  

4/5