The Leeds lads with the arcane name and the refreshingly non-trendy taste in Wishbone Ash-style twin guitars and vintage Sweet B-sides don’t qualify as prolific. Luckily their third album in eight years is as nippy as their influences are old-school.
Bandleader and producer James Atkinson and his lead guitar foil Bill Steer have a telepathic understanding, suggesting the songs have been gestating for an age. Last-minute spontaneity is lacking but these Pistols aren’t really about anarchy.
Opening track The Searcher and Time Wasters are Atkinson’s cris de coeur and probably the best things on view. A glam drum stomp pervades elsewhere and nothing hangs about to outstay its welcome. Lady Teaser is better than its title suggests, having a whiff of Badfinger about the fringes.
Hustler’s Row, a power ballad of sorts, closes the deal with a flourish: all very competent and just too safe. Make the next one quicker?
