A host of rock legends crop up to stamp their approval. After a slightly cringy answerphone intro, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen and vocalist Joe Elliot supercharge surging love-song I Hate How Much I Want You. Rage Against The Machine six-stringer Tom Morello elevates the rough-hewn Wild Child with the kind of carefree fretboard-bashing virtuosity we’ve not seen since Audioslave. When The Strokes guitarist (and esteemed solo songwriter) Albert Hammond Jr. then arrives on the surprisingly reflective indie-rocker Another Hit Of Showmanship, it barely raises an eyebrow.
Crucially, though, this remains The Struts’ show. In Luke they have a frontman with the fantasy-bridging blend of charisma, swagger and mainstream rock dexterity to feel like a real-life Aldous Snow. And he’s only getting better with age. By the time he, ahem, struts through the jangling Can’t Sleep and on into smouldering, after-hours-appropriate closer Am I Talking To The Champagne (Or Talking To You), even the staunchest cynics will have been dragged into his irresistible alternate reality of soft-focus sex and high-sheen cool. An exuberant escape from these Strange Days, indeed…
Rating: 4/5
For fans of: The Darkness, Def Leppard, Aerosmith
Strange Days is out now via Polydor
Read this: The Struts on taking over the world, being pals with Robbie Williams, and a potential secret collaboration with Foo Fighters…