pop

The current musical swing of seedy but drop-dead-cool New York things Royal Trux (right) is quite unexpected. Their albums so far have been reliably squalid tales from the dark side, very rough 'n' tumble, lo-fi stuff. But now they've gone solidly electric and shuffled into the boogie 'n' booze territory of The Black Crowes with fifth album Thank You (Hut). But we have two things to be thankful for. One, it's still very much a Royal Trux affair: big-hair vocalist Jennifer Herrema still has a leather-tongued snarl that would stop Courtney Love in her tracks, and her words still focus on the kind of wastrels who would make Quentin Tarantino's toes curl. Two, the songs are just better all round. Guitars are still raw and cantankerous, but definitely more melodically steered than ever before.

Perhaps with the change, however, Royal Trux are making a point. Maybe they're telling us we know less about their tastes than we thought. They're certainly unpredictable. When here in 1993, by night they spat bile and turned in raucous shows with songs with titles like "Junkie Nurse"; by day, they quietly watched cricket on TV. Or perhaps it's all down to nothing more than the move to loadsalolly label Virgin in the US. Whatever, they do a good job in rescuing 1970s values, southern-fried guitar funk from the people who are too muso for their own good. All together now: we will, we will rawk you...

Royal Trux, Thur 9 Mar, 100 Club, Oxford St, W1 (071-636 0933)