Swedish power trio VA Rocks are a fast-rising name on the Euro live circuit, and on the evidence of this snappy little half-hour long firecracker of an album, I’m not surprised…

I Love VA Rocks is their second album, but there a none of the difficulties associated with sophomore efforts to be detected here. No More Fucks To Give is a spirited opener, but it’s second track The Code Of The Road where the magic really starts to happen. Coming on like a glorious mixture of Girlschool  in their prime and, well… that’s about it actually, these three young Swedes belt out a noise whose sheer sonic maturity belies their young years. Gonna Get You piles on the class, adding a power pop zing to proceedings – if you’ve heard of Holly and the Italians you’ll be loving this, let me tell yas- with Ida Svensson Vollmer leading from the front both vocally and with some fiery guitar playing thrown in for added shits and giggles…

Rock solid rhythm section Klara Wedding (bass) and drummer Frida Rosén are no slouches either, with both adding some great backing vocals along with their super tight propulsiveness; all three mesh together superbly on Woman, where Vollmer gives one of her best vocal performances (slightly redolent of Stevie Lange from the Limara Advert!) of an album littered with great singing.

Rebel Blood is a dirty, low-slung rocker, punky to the max – where punk means dirty thrills rather than po-faced preaching – whilst Hit The Road bows down at the twin altars of Jett and Quatro  and features some tasty rock n’roll piano. Romeo & Juliet throws in some swampy rockabilly – seriously, there’s nothing these girls can’t turn their hands to – the big bruising chords and superb chorus bringing to mind Tiger Army at their absolute finest, as the band tell their tale of doomed love with all the desperation the subject matter deserves.

Rabble-rousing penultimate track Here Comes Trouble goes back to bubblegum punk as it’s source; the girls don’t exactly reinvent the glam rock wheel but certainly give it a groovy new coat of paint and a hair-raising key change at the end of the song just to remind you just how on the ball they are; but they save their big surprise for final track Never In A Million Years,  where they drop things down a couple of thousand notches and close things out with a piano and an acoustic guitar-led ballad. It’s a risk after all the good-time fun and games that have gone before but – and you know what’s coming, right? – they absolutely nail it and then some.

I’d heard good things about VA Rocks from several trusted sources – but nothing that led me to believe they’d be as good as this. Get out and get hold of this today!

I Love VA Rocks is out now.