Reviews

Inside The Flesh Hotel

New albums from Paul Rodgers, The Darkness, Nine Inch Nails, The Alarm, Five Finger Death Punch, Richie Sambora & Orianthie… Reissues from Guns N’ Roses, Yes, Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Jethro Tull, Big Country, Rose Tattoo… DVDs, films and books on Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Devin Townsend Project, Jack Bruce Tribute Concert…

Live reviews of Foreigner, Bryan Adams, Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, Circus Of Power, Warrior Soul, Sleep…

New Yorkers’ third album, and their second this year.

Having scrabbled around the fringes of the New York glam‑punk scene since the formerly homeless trio’s tinny 2014 debut Trash Glamour, Beechwood’s moment may have finally come. January’s Songs From The Land Of Nod was an appropriately narcotic swirl, but the flab‑free Inside The Flesh Hotel is a huge leap forwards.

A democracy where all three members contribute separate songs, Beechwood make muscular, sunshine music (Boy Before casts them as a 21st‑century Jellyfish and Amy’s tumbling harmonies are accompanied by a piano ear worm), which suggests they’re on the wrong coast.

There’s real bite as well as beauty in the riff‑laden instrumental Nero thanks to Gordon Lawrence’s guitar, while Bigot In My Bedroom shouts at Donald Trump. Our Love Was Worth The Heartbreak ends a heroic statement of intent with a woozy singalong.