Danko Jones: Rock And Roll Is Black And Blue

Brash, accomplished effort from the Canadian trio.

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Danko Jones have peddled a mixed bag of styles for more than a decade now – one that defies the predictability one may deduce from the familiar 90s-00s US pop-punk vocal. Classic hard rock, 80s hardcore, poppy punk, metal... All of those appear on this, their sixth studio release, but with a new poise and assurance.

They were screwing girls in the backs of Cadillacs and lamenting lady troubles in 2010’s Below The Belt, and the predominant tone of Rock And Roll... suggests they have no intention of stopping. ‘Legs! Legs! Long legs!’ Danko sings on Legs. Man, they love legs… The feminist in this writer would righteously condemn them were it not so blatantly ‘stoopid’.

Oh, and the classic bluesy-rock licks peppered across the record are pretty delicious. Perhaps more than ever before, their grounding love of the likes of Kiss and AC/DC is resoundingly clear. Be it the spit’n’grind drive of Conceited, or the sun-sex’n’sleaze swagger of Don’t Do This, retro roots apply, albeit modulated with alt.punk rock zing.

Yes, lyrically it’s basically all girls and getting lucky (or unlucky), but there’s something genuinely original and ballsy about Rock And Roll… that essentially overrides this

Polly Glass
Deputy Editor, Classic Rock

Polly is deputy editor at Classic Rock magazine, where she writes and commissions regular pieces and longer reads (including new band coverage), and has interviewed rock's biggest and newest names. She also contributes to Louder, Prog and Metal Hammer and talks about songs on the 20 Minute Club podcast. Elsewhere she's had work published in The Musician, delicious. magazine and others, and written biographies for various album campaigns. In a previous life as a women's magazine junior she interviewed Tracey Emin and Lily James – and wangled Rival Sons into the arts pages. In her spare time she writes fiction and cooks.