Album review: Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts – Ballad Of A Misspent Youth

Tuk Smith’s old band, Biters, were an outfit so skilled in rock’n’roll it belied both their young age and the decade in which they were operating. We liked them so much we put them on the 2016 Kerrang! Tour. That band may have gone their separate ways, but Tuk is one of those musicians for whom the call of this stuff is just What You Do. So, here we see him return, guitar still firmly in hand and restless heart still somewhere in America – and his current home of Nashville will do just nicely – on a hazy summer’s day in the golden age of the late 1970s and early-’80s, slightly less wild sounding than before, but no less like a man simply doing what comes naturally.

Riff-wise, he’s obviously not stopped listening to AC/DC, but the overall effect here is more in tune with the on-the-road romance of Thin Lizzy’s more melodic side, or the swelling, poetic radio rock of Tom Petty. The opening title-track throws in shades of Bowie stomp, as does Girls On The East Side Of Town, while Ain’t For The Faint takes a warmer tack, adding in some organ that could have come straight from Petty’s Damn The Torpedoes. Elsewhere, there's touches of Cheap Trick, Aerosmith and The Cars, both in sound and class.

If that seems like a lot of comparison and reference, it is. But Tuk Smith here also shows himself to be a fine songwriter here, invoking classic rock’s heyday without slipping into parody or cheese. Tuk in.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Thin Lizzy, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, AC/DC

Ballad Of A Misspent Youth is out now via MRG