Junkyard Drive

Black Coffee

Copenhagen sleaze rockers’ almost-there second.

Last year’s hit folk cover Geordie showcased these illgroomed Danes’ neat way with a power ballad, but you don’t win long-haired hearts without cranking up the tempo.

On this follow-up to last year’s Sin & Tonic debut, they quickly do that via the Guns-y attack of Time Is Over, complete with bitchy, Axl-esque lyrics taking aim at ‘an online superstar’. Better still is Backseat Baby, which flies along like a joy-ridden sports car fleeing a fleet of cop cars .

The soft midriff of this album once more displays Junkyard Drive’s skill when they take it slow – Through The Door builds into a stirring, windswept epic, Way Too Long is a soaring, melodic gem – but the one criticism of this record is that the mid-tempo stuff can’t quite keep up the same standard, and Sweet Little Dreamer and Make Up Your Mind begin to plod a little.

Black Coffee serves Junkyard Drive well, then, but maybe a bit more speed wouldn’t go amiss.