Album review: Mother Vulture – Mother Knows Best

Somewhere between Royal Blood at their fuzziest, Biffy Clyro at their heaviest, and Queens Of The Stone Age at their most crazed and chaotic, Westcountry mob Mother Vulture play the sort of dirty but classy rock’n’roll that flips the table over, but then gives the sort of cheeky, charismatic wink that says it's all fine. Their riffs are big, fat, usually fast, and always slicker than Roger Moore's pomade, and in singer Georgi Valentine, a man with a high range that makes Creeper's Will Gould sound like Leonard Cohen, a mouthpiece that dribbles noisy charisma. On paper, they are very good (right down to Georgi's name). On Mother Knows Best, they're the sort of fun-riot that comes at you with both ultra-cool charm and scruffy, loose energy.

On Fame Or Shame, they deliver it all at once: a powerful, two-note riff, a slinky chorus, a beat to raise the pulse, and a screaming climax that shows they can go about two minutes before they go feral. Elsewhere, on the immaculately-titled Monster Crunch, and Big Bad there's a serious Three Cheers… energy, and Shifting Sands deftly shows how tight they can get a rhythm, a la Queens. Even when they slow it down, on the stomping Honey and Rabbit Hole, they're still magnetic.

It's big, banging fun from a band already making a name for themselves as one of Britain's most exciting new noises. Mother knows best? For once, that might actually be true.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Queens Of The Stone Age, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Royal Blood

Mother Knows Best is out now via Lockdown