Silverjet - Silverjet Album Review

As a reviewer, I get sent a lot of high-minded and pretentious 'art rock' albums to listen to, and that's ok, but sometimes you just want to rock! Within one minute of Silverjet's self-titled second album beginning, I have already been invited to "get fu**ing crazy" - Silverjet rock: pure and simple.

This album is full of swagger and bravado reminiscent of the sunset strip bands of the 80s, but Silverjet also have the songs to back it up. The aforementioned Crazy starts with a huge riff and a similarly oversized chorus. The album sticks to this formula for the most part, delivering one frantic rock beast after another - if these guys are half as good live as they are on CD, that's one hell of a gig!

It's not just the frantic rock numbers that deliver in spades though: the album's epic ballad - Lie with Me - is a definite standout track, trading huge distorted riffs for clean and acoustic guitars. The heartbreaking chorus sounds huge after the quiet introspection of the verses and is the sort of thing I'm sure Aerosmith would pay somebody a great deal of money to write for them.

Following the epic Lie with Me is very much more of the same - more down and dirty sleazy rock gems. Out to Dry and Cold Love feature some fantastic guitar work - both rhythm and lead. The guitars are a real strength of this album, as are the vocals: they have the perfect sound to be delivering these sleazy songs.

The album finishes with the fairly cheesy the Final Chapter, built around a melancholy piano hook. The song embodies what Silverjet are all about really - sure, at times its cliché, but it is a hell of a lot of fun and these songs are brilliant. You want arty and introspective shoe gaze albums? That's fine, there are plenty of those about, but this is certainly not one of them. God bless Silverjet, and God bless Rock'n'roll!


Ben Walton