Album Review: Love/Hate - "Hell CA"

It's good to see Jizzy Pearl back with a new album. As those of you who remember the early Sounds From The Junkshop columns will know, Love/Hate were one of my favourite bands of the late Sunset Strip era growing up and even if recent releases have been more on the solid side than the spectacular one, the guy deserves credit for his tenacity.

Hell, CA (named after the closing track on Love/Hate's classic debut Blackout In The Red Room) doesn't really pull any major surprises on you but it's a decent slice of no frills sleaze rock right from the moment the Welcome To The Jungle style opener One Hot Minute kicks things into gear. The twisting riff of Acid Baby is reminiscent of the group's mid-period albums like Let's Rumble but it at least packs enough of a hook to keep you interested. Gonna Take You Higher gets your hopes up with a delicate acoustic intro but this soon gives way to a grinding riff and something a bit more akin to what you'd expect from Jizzo. At least it has a decent riff to power it along and keep you interested though.

And thus it largely continues to be honest: Hell CA is a decent enough effort but its main drawback is that it's a bit on the predictable side - certainly there's no real efforts to try and move the sound outside of what Jizzo and his crew are comfortable with (the mid-paced moody acoustic-led Last Chance is maybe the nearest they come from letting go of their sleaze rock security blanket). What just to say saves it is that they're a band who are at least picking a formula they know is their strong suit - chugging riffs, punchy rhythms and Pearl's unmistakable half-scream half-snarl vocals (to be fair to the guy, his pipes are holding up pretty well given that he's now well into his fourth decade in the rock 'n' roll game) - and putting enough decent hooks into it to keep it listenable as evidenced on the likes of Bruised And Battered.

No alarms and no surprises here then. But sometimes there's an argument to sticking to what you're good at and Hell CA will at least keep Love/Hate's existing fanbase more than happy even if it's very unlikely to win them any new converts at this stage in the game.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

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