The lead tracks from the forthcoming debut long player 'Last Train To Babylon' see The Black Stars pour in the vital ingredients for good rock 'n' roll music.

Raw guitar, rumbling bass, drums, saxophone and some ivory tinkling but whilst they have the ingredients I'm a little torn as to whether they know what to do with them to bake the perfect rockin'  product. 'Read My Lips' is decent enough with the keys tinkling away in the background and a little bit of sax appeal but in my humble opinion it's just a little buried in the mix, and the lyrics are a bit first grade sleazy punk rock for my liking; sure "Read my lips mother fucker" can work but it just comes across as a little contrived.....but the music is fine and dandy and taking the lyrics out these chaps might be onto something with a few tweeks here and there - it's low down, dirty and hacked off in the right places...well almost.
 

'Rockstar' comes bowling out of the traps but again the lyrics are bland and the path is most certainly worn - it has to be exceptional to stand out - but their take on mashing up the Ramones with a little glamour is a great place to start. I'm sure over time there is enough potential here for a decent band to emerge and I would like to investigate further just to see what else these guys have in the locker because it could definitely go either way here; sure it's big, brash, noisy and dumb in all the right places just like this kind of rock 'n' roll should be......Almost.

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