Other new releases out this month.
Johnny Moped
Croydon-via-Roxy legend Paul Halford returns (at 70) with longstanding guitarist Slimey Toad and their most satisfying release since 1977’s Cycledelic. An unprecedented musical sophistication fails to sharpen JM’s uniquely blunt, punk-savant bludgeoning. 7/10
Johnny Casino
Imbued with hectic ’n’ frenetic Iggy (living on the) edginess, nomadic, ex-Asteroid B-612, guitar-slinging Sydney rocker/tattoo artist Casino stokes up an obvious debt to Nuggets-era garage with blurts of Farfisa and (digital bonus) an epic assault on Eight Miles High. 7/10
Tommy Hale
From the doggedly riff-driven, thousand-yard staring, Swervedriver insistence of Hideaway to the eager-to-please, perk-pop My Sharonaings of World Won’t Wait, All At Sea’s hard to pin down, but Texan Hale’s Snakes-supported fourth casually satisfies at every turn. 7/10
Cuffed Up
LA trio Cuffed Up (sparking with 21st-century ambition) are as post-grunge as they’re post-punk. Boasting a spikey Brooklyn-loft ’03 spirit and a timeless pop-rock heart, they exude arty-smarty ear worms (Finer Things, Mock Dance) and ample genzennial swagger. 8/10
Freedom
Hellacopters’ Nicke Andersson once referred to fellow blue-collar Stockholm drive-time rock journeymen Freedom as a “bargain basement Springsteen”. Possibly not as backhanded a compliment as ‘the Lidl Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’, but if the shit fits… 6/10
High Noon Kahuna
Who ordered the death-rock surf’n’turf? While this Maryland trio’s bill of fare might sound theoretically unappetising (Dick Dale in ashroud of goth reverb giving it plenty on the post-Christian Death front), in practice it seems to make some sort of morbid sense. 7/10
Dana Gillespie
Ex-Mainman starlet Gillespie sells each song (Green Day here, Leonard Cohen there) with experience and aplomb. Bowie’s Can You Hear
