South Coast neon rock purveyors The Blue Hearts have delivered an album choc full of seedy late night inner city lounge rock.  Not all my words because I'd never have thought of neon rock but it is a seedy, few drinks past midnight kind of rock sound that The Blue Hearts have got going on. 

Singer Bob Powell sails quite close to the one and only Nick Cave and some of the song structures and narrative also lean towards the Bad Seeds but hey nothing wrong with that, Nick Cave is über cool. The more I listened to this album the better it got - to be fair after the first few plays I wasn't having it at all and passed it off as kitsch and it drifted over my noggin but I found I had a deadline looming ever closer and I always like to give the albums a decent crack of the whip. I found myself warming to the 'Jukebox Of Maladies' with all its 50's and 60's guitar licks, especially 'Velvet Prison', but as the album wore on the better the tracks got. 'The Wagon Rolls' is a great song as is 'Snake Oil Sam' but the best track on offer would be the lap steel lament of 'You Never Let Me Bleed', coming across like Chuck Prophet jamming with the Bad Seeds with some great playing. 'Ballad Of A Bad Boy' reminds me of Mozzer's band when they get nasty with some great lyrics to boot.

All in all a surprisingly decent effort and one that crept up on me - check it out you might just surprise yourself with some Neon Rock!

www.myspace.com/thebluehearts_uk