EDDIE AND THE WOLVES – Tasty Sin

What a delightful surprise this Derby-based act is! These talented and hard-rocking blues rockers conjure up a massive amount of groove and countless golden hooks on this refreshing and robust 9-song record of theirs, and the whole thing is literally a treasure trove of strong, bouncy riffs and superb vocal melodies – all of which is underpinned by a solid rhythm section – and not least the right amount of dramatic panache to make the tunes truly captivating. The title track brings a vivid tale to life, “Blood Runs Cold” offers unfiltered emotion, and “Different Kinda Girl” is nothing short of an infectiously catchy gem that is impossible not to worship. This group sure knows how to craft songs with light and shade to them, and in truth, hardly anything feels superfluous here. The press material that accompanied the promo copy mentioned Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie Ray Vaughan as points of musical reference, and that is rather apt and fitting from the perspective of this scribe as Eddie and the Wolves kind of sound like a mixture of the three giants only with an added touch of their own charisma and style.

A beefier drum sound carrying more punch would not have gone entirely amiss, and the vocals do lack a bit of grit and swagger in places, but those are minor quibbles, and the LP is a cohesive, thoroughly enjoyable, and all-out solid piece of bluesy hard rock that works incredibly well on so many levels. Lively and spirited stuff by an awe-inspiring UK band that people ought to check out.