Electric six

Bride Of The Devil Metropolis

Fourteenth album from the dudes who wrote Gay Bar.

Remember Gay Bar, and Danger! High Voltage? Electric Six probably wish those aren’t the only songs of theirs you remembered. You can’t blame them, given how many more spirited hybrids of surfy rock’n’roll, power-pop and noisy hard rock they’ve released since then.

Today they come bearing a fevered, poppy yet heavy ode to Lucifer; a metaphor for Russia (ooh!), with America as “the young girl who is seduced, corrupted and wedded into a Satanic covenant with the beast” (oooh!). Stodgy moments aside, it often delivers – with oomphy power-pop, fuzz-laden hooks and maniacal yowling in the satisfyingly swaggering You’re Toast, along with subtler acoustic touches and funky jibes in tracks like (It Gets) (A Little) Jumpy.

It isn’t a return to those batshit glory days, but it should keep their fans happy.