Emerging in the early 1990s, California's The BellRays have been sending up the confines of genres for years. With heavy doses of garage, rock and soul, this grinding together of all things good has produced consistently high releases throughout their expansive career. It is impressive then, that the new album, awesomely entitled 'Black Lightning', is possibly their best ever release. The opener, and title track, is a barn storming, leg stomping anthem of beastly proportions, and instantly you know that The BellRays are bang on the money, with Lisa Kekaula in fine commanding form. It is a relief that, following the opener, the variety of the album never lets you down. The amalgamation of influences is the silky glue that binds this band together. The key is that they mix it so smoothly it never sounds like a cross-over. It demonstrates rock 'n' soul as protective siblings or an inseparable couple with a shared determination for danger. It is Bonnie and Clyde, it is Mickey Knox and Mallory, and it is relentless rock interspersed with romantic liaisons. Like a Danko Jones fronted by Gladys Knight, it is fresh and sexy. Every song on this album commands attention, from the rip-roaring 'On Top', with the fantastic lyric "I'll give everything that I have; I'll be your slut", to the Ramones-esque 'Power To Burn', The BellRays deliver garage rock magnificence. But of course, the band can effortlessly bring the pace down, with vocal-driven pop songs such as 'Sun Comes Down', showing them as smooth as they are powerful. Released through Fargo on 28 February, 'Black Lightning' is already, no doubt, one of the bestapproved_image_lrg albums you will hear this year. This is an album of maximum sex and style, high on a pure power drive. If you don't like it, there's certainly something wrong with you.
