Since first finding out about The Atom Age, two or three albums ago, they've ably filled the vacuum left by Rocket From The Crypt ceasing to exist (albeit they're a going concern again). Slightly less manic maybe but deploying a similar sonic template.

Cry 'Til You Die is the band's fourth album although, at only apparently 25 minutes long, the ten songs are maybe better classed as a mini-album. Either way the trademark sleazy '50s/'60s garage and jazz hybrid the sextet purvey is effectively put across & the pacing manages to somehow seemingly stretch things to greater length (i.e. there are no plodders but nor are there any real short sharp shocks).

No matter though as the sax/Farfisa combination is as successfully deployed throughout the record as fans have come to expect and such rockers as 'When I Crawl Back In' are guaranteed to have you up on your feet wherever you first hear them and no doubt will be whipping crowds into a frenzy on the dates of the inevitable promotional tour(s).

The album starts off a bit funkily (for the first few seconds) with 'Love Is A Numbers Game' but is soon into its stride and you know things can only get better the deeper in you get. 'We Disappear In The Night' pounds along for its two minutes worth and the tone is properly set from that point onwards. The cover alone is worth the purchase & oh yeah - it's also on pink vinyl ... 

The Atom Age have all the attitude & hooks to rejuvenate your flagging interest in the primal powers of rock 'n' roll so why not open up and let 'em in? They've inspired me to write my first album review for months - imagine how accepting them could turn your life around!

Cry 'Til You Die can be obtained here.   

For one reason or another (most likely cost) I failed to see Pulp live when they were on the go. Nor did I see Jarvis Cocker's collaboration with Chilly Gonzalez here in Edinburgh at the Festival a couple of years ago. His Jarv Is show, therefore, seemed the ideal chance to redress the balance, helped in no small part by knowing Leith Theatre would afford me the option of a seat.

Having read Luke Haines' Bad Vibes memoir at the start of the week Jarvis has been a regular feature of the days running up to this show, being mentioned in the book a number of times as he is (overall it's a good read too) so it's felt a bit like a refresher course in where he's come from to reach the point that Jarv Is occupies in his career.

Extinction Rebellion had been invited along to set up shop outside the venue and in the foyer and the need for action on global warming and reaction against the forces preventing meaningful change taking place was definitely the theme of the night.

Jarvis was on top form, the consummate entertainer, let down only at the point where he apologised for himself and his band being English, thereby indulging the myth that that's an issue for supporters of independence in Scotland (plenty of non-Scots are fans of the idea).  

Nowhere else in the city tonight would you have been regaled with quotes from Debussy, Dorothy Parker, John Lee Hooker and one or two other diverse sources in between the songs and on-stage gyrations. The near-capacity crowd lapped up every moment of it and joyfully sang & clapped along, particularly at the times when the disco ball was in use and in the choruses of current single 'Must I Evolve?'

90% of tonight's material was new but there was a Relaxed Muscle track included (a musical endeavour of Cocker's which until now had passed me by) and a Pulp track I didn't recognise & so can only assume it was pre-His & Her's.

The three song encore was over too soon for all concerned but we'd seen a band & frontman perform at their peak so no one would be leaving disappointed.

The support tonight came from Glasgow quintet Our Lady Of The Sea. Much like Jarvis's nationalism mis-step they referenced the fallacy that people in the East have an antipathy to those from Scotland's West mid-way through an introduction, a tiresome habit, long since become unamusing. Their online presence is seemingly non-existent so no link here unfortunately. Musically they were a bit pedestrian but with nonsense lyrics more suited to a far more psychedelic sound than they're currently pursuing.