I'll admit I'm definitely not a fan of post-1992 rock n' roll,
but when I slid this CD into my walkman, I was taken aback. "This
is bloody brilliant!" I proclaimed, temporarily disrupting the
English lesson. When the teacher turned back to continue some
gammer lesson-err-another, I returned to this excellent British
rock trio.
As soon as the opening drum beats, chords, and vocals kicked, the first word that came to my head was "The" immediately followed by "Beatles." The opening track ("Burnin'") was like a cooler, updated version of the rock legends' magnum opus, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." All other tracks on here are just as good, if not better, and the epitome of "driving music." If you're ever on the road, this is one of the albums to have blasting out the open window.
The guitar is the shining star of this album. The chord can playing can be very light and fun, as seen in the intro of "24/7" (which, to me, is also the best song on the album), but can also be very heavy, such as the song "Silver Eye." And the melodic leads flow perfectly (the ending lead in "The Hunger" is proof). The drumming is very well-done as well. While not overly difficult, it reminds me of the classic British rock bands of the '60s.
As for problems with the album, there are only two trivial ones I can find. The first is the bass, which is very hard to hear, but I'm used to the bass not being very prominent, so it doesn't bother me…too much. The other is the lyrics, which at times can be fairly shallow and redundant, but I can look past those for the most part as well.
Since I haven't been in touch with the rock releases of this year (or the past five years, for that matter) I can't say for sure this would be one of the best, but if the best the big labels had to release were Nickelback and Avril Lavigne, then yes, this would and should definitely be topping lists. I recommend this to any fans of The Beatles looking for something new, or rock fans in general.