Rock & Roll Is Black & Blue

• Track Listing

Big in Sweden - that might have seemed snide before the Swedes took over and redeemed garage rock over the previous decade. Toronto's Danko Jones fell off my radar two albums ago, but the Scandos have understood his bluster from the jump. Despite the enduring boulder on his shoulder, the frontman's can't-touch-this swagger now feels earned rather than precocious, and his AC/DC/Phil Lynott thing has matured. Black and Blue is a Gatling gun of heavy push-pull riffs with a thick, rhythmic tone and unflagging energy. Don't Do This has a winningly braying intro, and Always Away lifts a famed Angus Young opener for a kind of alt-hard rock - but really, Jones is less the lickmeister than the face, snarl and guitar edge of what is a three-man rhythm section: fast, hard and convincing. Thoroughly, and creditably, created to be played live.

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