They now arguably deserve to receive the baton from the just-retired Mötley Crüe as rock's reigning premier good-time heroes.
When reviewing a new Hair Metal/Stadium Rock album, I have a tried and tested modus operandi – namely, does it sound the business from behind the wheel of a badass, old-school, pop-up headlamp motor, even on the Mancunian ring-road on a drizzly February afternoon? I'm delighted to confirm that 'InVader', Reckless Love's fourth full-length album, meets the criteria in tyre-smoking fashion.
Opener 'We Are The Weekend' is an anthemic antidote to the grind of daily life; it's a grower, if less immediate than 'Hands', which, as has become a RL second-track tradition, is one of the album's faster, heavier moments; it's an adrenaline-fuelled call to arms that's surely an odds-on favourite for set-opener on the band's imminent European tour. 'Bullettime' keeps the pedal pushed to the metal, while 'Let's Get Cracking' – reminiscent of Van Halen MK1 – is a tongue-in-cheek celebration of boozing & bawdiness, with a silly, endearing and clearly worse for wear extended acoustic outro.
Two tracks sit at the zenith of 'InVader'. 'Keep It Up All Night' bursts forth with more zest than a lemon juice power-shower combining a huge, eighties-evoking chorus with pulsating synthesized beats (it's a liable licence-loser when cranked up loud), while 'Scandinavian Girls' is sheer Pop Rock bliss – the kind of thing David Lee Roth surely wished he'd penned and the perfect playlist partner for FM's 'American Girls' and 'Girls Of The 80s' by Crazy Lixx.
'Monster' rides on a Grungy riff and suffers from a flat, predictable chorus – a rare misstep from the band – while the classy, mid-tempo 'Destiny' features a melodic bridge between verse and chorus that instantly brings to mind 'Dying To Live' from their previous album 'Spirit'.
Reckless Love have delivered yet another album bursting with more hooks than a fisherman's satchel, and now arguably deserve to receive the baton from the just-retired Mötley Crüe as rock's reigning premier good-time heroes.
Caesar Barton