Album Review: Diamond Dogs - "Slap Bang Blue Rendezvous"

 

It's good to see the Diamond Dogs back with the second album since their reunion a decade or so ago. Their comeback album Recall Rock 'n' Roll And The Magic Soul was a bit of a disappointment to be honest with a mix of hit-and-miss originals and competent but not exactly earth-shattering cover versions. So it kind of feels like there's a bit of pressure here for the band to remind us that they've still got it in the unforgiving climate of 2022.

Happy to say it gets off to a storming start with lead-off single Alright Brutus I'm On being a freewheeling slice of honky tonk rock 'n' roll which fair blasts out of the speakers to put a big grin on your mush. The run keeps up with the Motown-esque What If I Knocked? which should get your foot tapping along nicely and Everything's Fine sounding like a great lost cross between the Small Faces' Itchycoo Park and T-Rex's Metal Guru.

I have to be honest, my two big fears going in here were the fact that this album is 24 tracks long and that for a group who are as unashamedly retro as the Diamond Dogs it could sink into repeating itself. But it's to the band's immense credit that it doesn't. Let's cut to the chase here, the Diamond Dogs are a world away from those tedious po-faced NWOCR '70s revivalists who are intent on studiously extracting the fun out of everything they touch in face of tedious copy-faithfully-at-all-costs rulebook studying. This is gloriously suave and swaggering rock 'n' roll with a sense of fun and a pint in its hand, similar to what groups like the Quireboys and the Dogs D'Amour won our hearts with a generation ago - sure, the Stones, Faces and Mott influences are pretty obvious to spot but the warmth and pint-in-yer-hand cheerfulness that all of those bands exuded at their best shines through from these songs - listen to the gentle ballad of A Rock In The Sea or the raise-the-roof You Shouldn't Be Lonely On A Saturday Night for proof.

The highlights come thick and fast here from the All The Way From Memphis style honking sax on Golden Wheel through the stomping mid-album one-two of Queen Of The Milky Way and Rock It And Roll It to the Who-style Common Form Of Life. On the quieter side, Sunday Haze is surprisingly dark and remorseful while Any Way I Can Make Her Smile is a gorgeous longing slowie that Spike would've been proud to have come up with. But even the less stand-out tracks here are more than competent at holding their own and keep the momentum rolling along nicely.

Fair play to the Diamond Dogs, it would have been very easy for them to fall on their faces with this album but with Slap Bang Blue Rendezvous, not only have they come up with a double album that keeps your attention throughout (no mean feat) but also made a comprehensive statement that they're very much back with a bang. Perfect listening for your Friday drinking session and all the better for it.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)