With a voice so rasping and leathered, The Lost Revue’s Al Joshua sounds close to complete lung collapse if not imminent death. Thankfully, it’s the perfect colouring for this four piece’s brand of smoky, bounding blues. ‘Devil Hit A Hi-Hat Riding’ is a stomach-wrenching whirl through The Coral’s basement and The Black Keys back yard. In fact, only The ‘Keys superb Dan Auerbach comes close to delivering the sort of demonic growl and hum Joshua and his fellow blues men manage to capture on this record.
‘Sell My Ass’_ grasps for Beefheart’s crown but misses by an inch or ten, eventually falling somewhere near the feet of new London howlers Archie Bronson Outfit. Satisfyingly, it seems the rich heritage The Lost Revue insist on wading through is doing them no harm at all. And with vocals immersed in swathes of filth and grime from the American winter of 1929, standing out in the crowd should be no problem at all.
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6Ross Bennett's Score