The Crave

Stephen Dale Petit

333 records 2953-09

26th July 2010

After 2008's Guitararama album, I put on The Crave expecting fiery rocking blues in the same mould, this I got but also a whole load more. 3 Gunslingers hits you like Iggy Pop in full melt your face-off mode, California ads some fine female harmonies and Steve Miller style guitar. Let There Be More Light has a gospel feel whilst Gun Song has a fine shuffling rhythm with searing licks dabbed all over it, lyrically taking liberties with Roadhouse Blues getting a gun instead of Morrison's beer. Only four tracks of the mammoth Seventeen in and four completely different but equally intense tracks. Then it’s back to basics with the best Need Your Love So Bad, this side of Peter Green. Judgement Day may be brief but boy does it pack some weight. If Need Your Love So Bad is traditional, Robert Johnson's Crossroads is reworked with haunting bells, strings, quick fire riffs and a punky new wave vocal growl, fabulous stuff.

The styles and delivery come thick and fast, Lookin' For Trouble a stand out with shades of Exile On Main Street Stones, Slide features Mick Taylor so perhaps it's homage to him. As if pre-empting reviews It's All Good sums up the album precisely and by the time Hole In My Soul finishes with you, all you can do is hit repeat.

A rollicking good listen and the mastery of different styles had me not thinking of the Blues, although it is evident throughout, but of London Calling by the Clash and guess what if you open up the cover there is a photograph of SDP in a hat and jacket looking for all the world like Paul Simonon does these days, only this album is a lot more inspired than the Gorillaz.

Chris Phillips

Brfm

Stephen Dale Petit