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Dirty Thrills have a rotten name and a terrific sound. Rather than the fifth-rate 80s cock rock their handle suggests, the youthful London four-piece offer taut, coiled modern blues rock that deftly stradles 1967 and 2017 in the same way as Rival Sons. In exactly the same way.
That’s Dirty Thrills’ biggest problem. Heavy Living is a long, long way from being a bad album but there’s no glossing over their resemblance to Jay Buchanan and co – themselves an act who have been known to the cop the odd move from the giants of the 60s and 70s. It’s there in the electric grooves of Law Man and The Brave, and it’s definitely there in singer Louis James’s soaring and tumbling vocals. It’s doubly frustrating because you sense there’s a truly fantastic band in there bursting to get out – one who aren’t called Rival Sons.
