Band Of Skulls - Sweet Sour

So Southampton. Not the first place you’d think to look for sexed-up, bourbon-soaked blues. Yet in 2009 that’s exactly where we found it – with Band of Skulls’ debut Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, which, set somewhere in the American South, howled, stomped, sashayed and chugged, one eye on our craniums, the other on our knickers.

So how to follow up then? Well, listening to opener and title track ‘Sweet Sour’, literally where they left off. Using loud-quiet dynamics to awesome effect, it prowls myriad twists and turns, slowly and purposefully, in low-slung pants before exploding into huge slabs of swampy garage rock with a guitar solo more accomplished than anything on its predecessor. Similarly ‘Bruises’ starts off with understated guitar strums bubbling under the surface of a chorus that ambles in to blast away the cobwebs. Infact it goes without saying that Band of Skulls sound their most badass when they keep it primitive, grizzled and sexy. After the initial onslaught, the respite provided by ‘Gonna Lay My Head Down’ is almost a bit of an unwelcome dampener – that is until it breaks down into an ace, doomy middle section. It’s a pretty impressive opening salvo.

While their debut concentrated on their more dangerous side, it appears the band now have two types of song, alternating between dusty, ruminating moments and muscle-driven, Jack White-aping wigouts. ‘The Devil Takes Care Of His Own’ is all boozy AC/DC riffs and hurricane drums while on ‘Navigate’ Emma Richardson’s smoky vocals come to the forefront of  acoustic, wistful folk. After that ‘You’re Not Pretty But You Got It Goin On’ blazes and squalls, ‘Hometowns’ is a slinky lament, ‘Lies’ is more Black Keys fuzz… and you get the picture.

Band of Skulls have always worn their personal tastes on their sleeves – hell Jack White would probably do a double take if he heard guitarist-singer Russell Marsden croon  “She’s just a sum of her influences, and I can’t tell you the difference” on ‘Death By Diamonds and Pearls’. But while they don’t sound exactly like The White Stripes anymore, at any given moment on Sweet Sour Band Of Skulls are channelling Kings of Leon, Wolfmother, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC to the extent that they’re not bringing anything fresh to the table.

On the other hand though there’s plenty of substance here – hooks, harmonies and riffs a-plenty- and Band Of Skulls have never had a problem with style. However one suspects that on album number three they’ll have to find their thrills in something other than the familiar to stay impressive.