With a howl of feedback and some inspiring floor tom thumping The Honeymoon Killers are thumping their way into my affection at a rate of knots. With levels that would give a modern sound engineer a heart attack The Honeymoon Killers’ final album gets its much-belated release on vinyl thanks to the good people at Bang!.

Noo Yawk City 91 is the place and all three Blues Explosion members join up with Jerry Teal to kick out the jams motherfuckers and what a beautiful noise they make.

From the wild and reckless ‘Guess I’m Falling In Love’ the line in the sand is drawn and the chaotic, unbridled abandon in which these Rock and Rollers create their beautiful noise is blasting through the speakers. Like the love child of The Stooges, Jesus And Mary Chain, early Damned, and a whole bunch more besides sees that Noo Yawk was still getting its groove on into the 90s. The choppy guttural punch to the throat that is ‘Love Man’ is brilliant in its simplicity and the fact that these cats just want to rock n roll and to hell with the fineries of obtaining a rounded mix – it’s all about the vibe and the moment and capturing the excitement of what’s being created and this is like lightning in a bottle.

They’ve even got time for a trashy romp through ‘Oh Oh I Love Her So’. It’s all about the love on side A and when they rip a hole right through the heart of Dead Boys classic ‘What Love Is’. IT’s a raging thumper of a track but a fine line to get it right and if you have it coursing through your veins then you’ll nail it every time and The Honeymoon Killers just gets it. ‘Love Love Love Love Love’ is pure Spencer magic. To finish up side one there’s even time for a cheeky ‘Love Is All Around’ that needs to be heard – tuning is for pussies or something like that.

Side two begins with da Blooze with a gob iron honking ‘Who’s Driving Your Plane’ that twitches and twangs like a cat on a hot tin roof. The guitar tone for ‘Dead Again’ is exceptional like a refined East Cost Brian James on a hack and slash mission to kill every other instrument other than the crisp snare.

Man, Noo Yawk City has spewed some amazing bands that didn’t get the coverage they deserved when they were taking names but thanks to labels like Bang! we can pick up some of those recordings for less than a mortgage on a house. This record crosses the T’s and dots the i’s on a top turn. Get on cool kids you wont regret it!

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Author: Dom Daley