This Is Rock N' Roll

An album title like This Is Rock 'N' Roll doesn't exactly promise grand artistic ambition and high concept. Still, give the London Quireboys credit: the title emphatically delivers on its promise, however modest it may be. These Quireboys actually date back to the mid-1980s and coulda been a contender for the blues-and-boogie-rock crown that was eventually grabbed by the Black Crowes. Singer Spike Gray reconvened the band at various points and in various incarnations throughout the 1990s, but This Is Rock 'N' Roll marks the band's first new studio full-length in nearly a decade. For fans of unadulterated, unhyphenated rock with catchy hooks and thick riffs, you could certainly do a lot worse than this bunch. Sure, they sound an awful lot like the Faces--Rod Stewart rasp and all--with a touch of Mott tossed in, which will no doubt earn them cries of "Derivative!" from snootier folks, but that is their loss. As Spike himself belts out, "Y'know it's a travesty when ya just can't sing along." Amen. --Marc Greilsamer