Vain - Rolling With the Punches (MBM)

Davy Vain is back! This is, of course, very important news. Rolling With the Punches is his first outing for six years – yes, it really was as long ago as 2011 that he released the excellent Enough Rope – and what a fine, fine album it is.

For those of you who probably lost track with Vain after their excellent No Respect debut from 1989 the news is good; RWtP follows in the classic No Respect mode – great songs, blistering musicianship but, above all, that voice…

In many ways this album is the direct successor to No Respect and, though there is nothing to match the hair metal grandeur of Secrets or 1000 Degrees from that storied record there is plenty of material here that can only really be described as ‘top notch’. Dark City is a compelling piece of earthy, brooding hard rock, whilst the languorous Bury Some Pain – probably the best track here – is as close to a truly epic piece of hard rock I can remember the band coming up with. Vain’s vocal here – woozy, sexy, almost Plantesque – is truly hair-raising, and if the track doesn’t quite find top gear as it threatens to on a couple of occasions it really doesn’t matter. This is grade A craftsmanship from go to woah.

Elsewhere the opening brace of the title track and the boisterous Deliver the Passion will have you wishing you could still squeeze into those skin tight pleathers, whilst the stentorian It’s a Long Goodbye won’t fail to reignite primal strutting urges you sensed had been quenched many years ago. And if you’re not bouncing around the room to the superb storytelling of Don’t Let it Happen to You then there’s a fair chance there might be something seriously wrong with you…

All levity aside, however, this is an incredibly strong album. If you were a fan but that fandom has lapsed, then this is the album to put flame to that lost ardour again; If you’re new to the magic of Vain then welcome, but don’t waste any more time listening to my watery-eyed blathering – just get stuck in. You won’t regret a single second…