Albany Down: Not Over Yet

Not Over Yet

Albany Down

Bedford's blues-rock outfit Albany Down first hit the headlines with their debut album, South of the City, in 2011. Now they are back with Not Over Yet, which offers 12 more turbo-charged, riff-driven songs.

Albany Down play with a high level of energy, rocking with their roots in plain site: Led Zepellin, Cream and Hendrix can all be easily picked out as clear influences.

BBC Radio 2's Paul Jones has already identified them as one to watch. ''These guys are really going somewhere; make sure they take you with them!''

The ''guys'' in question are a quartet, consisting of the following personnel:

Paul Muir: Vocals

Paul Turley: Guitars/mandolin/harmonica/backing vocals

Damien Campbell: Drums

Billy Dedman: Bass

The album's opener - Back Again - builds slowly and ignites impressively. I was less taken by the next two tracks, which rocked well on the surface but were somewhat cliched in the lyric department. For example, You'd Better Run starts off thus: ''I've got a mind full of trouble, a soul full of sin/I've got a .38 and a bottle of gin/You stole my girl what can I do/I'm making up my mind, I'm coming after you...''

Man Like Me is much better and is the start a run of stronger songs, with welcome changes of tempo here and there to add variety.

The Working Man is a song for our times. It cleverly mixes a rail against the current state of the nation with a battle cry to keep going and ride the storm. Indeed, it's a theme which is spread liberally across the whole album.  ''Take a look at my face, can you see I'm falling/Would you walk right by and let me down/There's a world outside can you here it calling/There's so much more if you look around...''

Track List

Back Again
You'd Better Run
Take The Town
Man Like Me
Not Over Yet
My Lucky Streak
You Ain't Coming Home
She's The Light
You Wanna Be My Baby
Travelling Blues
Who Do You Think You Are
The Working Man

With the songs seemingly structured to be best enjoyed live and featuring great guitar work and strong vocals, Albany Down sound like a good group to catch on tour. It's definitely not over yet; in fact it's probably only just beginning.

Stand out tracks:  Back Again, Man Like Me, Not Over Yet, The Working Man.

Find out more over at their official website.