There’s an odd quirk about this album. While every track has undoubted quality, somehow the real essence of what the UK trio are trying to do only works when you get fully immersed in the flow of the songs from one to another. It’s then that you realise this is close to being an exceptional album.
What The Virginmarys prove is that they can really get to grips with the sort of approach Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie and Free had in the early 70s, something mirrored two decades later by the likes of Mother Love Bone and Alice In Chains. There’s a huge groove and power appreciable when you listen to the way Just A Ride flexes into Out Of Mind and then further through Bang Bang Bang.
They all have gritty melodies and fuel-injected riffs, but more importantly they have a gigantic momentum that sucks you with an intimate command of timeless hard rock. Best of all is the epic closer Ends Don’t Mend, which hums with the greatness of a young Led Zeppelin. This could easily end up among the year’s most crucial releases.
