Album: Band of Skulls, Sweet Sour (Electric Blues/Pias)

The sleeve of Sweet Sour – a 3D Rorschach blot of bones and blood – is far stranger and more disorienting than anything within.

The second full-length album from the Southampton band consists largely of riff-heavy hard rock and electric blues in a White Stripes/Black Keys vein, notably on the mighty "Lies", although the male-female vocal interplay on tracks such as "Lay My Head Down" suggests a band attempting a fusion of 1960s and 1970s Fleetwood Mac.