So, I have to be honest with you, I have never listened to Gun In my life before today, of course, I knew of them, know them by reputation etc, but they just never crossed my path until today. This is the crazy-beautiful thing about the music industry, a band can be slaying it for decades and maybe their ninth studio album may be the one that pulls in a new audience. #yay
Hombres is their first new album since 2017’s ‘Favourite Pleasures’ and follows 2022’s ‘The Calton Songs’ which was an acoustic reworking of their earlier music. So batteries recharged and ready to take on 2024 by the balls GUN are back with a vengeance.
What hits you immediately from the album’s opening track ‘All Fired Up’ is that Brit Rock sound, it hits you right between the eyes, there’s an old-school sound that comes with Brit-Rockers that just has that feel-good vibe in every strain of its DNA. The riffs keep banging, dragging you back to that 80-90’s sound you can almost smell the hippie oil and decomposing teenagers of the sunset strip in the air.
I can see a resurgence of backcombed hair and shoulder pads all being the rage at the live shows, there’s a definite Rock Of Ages vibe that hits you right between the eyes here, reminding you of the glory days when Rock ruled the airwaves, being a child of the 80’s myself I can appreciate this, the shite that drowns the current pop and RNB drivelled-filled radio stations of the millennials makes me wanna beat myself to death with a spoon, so good old fashioned melodic rock as it should be makes me a very happy man.
Oh and with guitar solo’s! remember those, tasteful licks that have you air-guitaring your little asses off front and centre at a gig! There is hope for us all yet, Bands like GUN remind us of better times gone by, simple, uncomplicated songwriting, harking back to the glory days and a timely reminder to sometimes take the time to smell the roses, in this case, the roses being the bands that laid the foundation for the newest generation of rockers to come through and lay down a foundation for the next. The circle of life if you will.
So this may be my first foray into GUN, it’s only taken me 30-plus years to catch up with them, but sure who’s counting.
Hombres lands on April 12th, 2024 via Cooking Vinyl and is the perfect soundtrack to guide you through the end of times (according to TikTok) so strap yourself in, crank it up and enjoy.
Mark
The thirteen tracks on Hombres were recorded and produced by Simon Bloor (Trevor Horn) with mixing by Daryl Thorpe (Foo Fighters) at Morsecode Studios and Strongroom Studio. The record boasts guest vocals from Beverley Skeete (Elton John, Chaka Khan, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash), Mary Pearce (Primal Scream, Lionel Ritchie, Chaka Khan) and Sarah-Jane Skeete (Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, Bill Wyman) of The Sisterhood on several tracks, as well as a guest performance on the drums from Joe Lazerus of Twin Atlantic.
The album will be available in multiple formats as both standard and deluxe editions via Cooking Vinyl, including on CD, vinyl, and digitally. Pre-order now here.
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Hombres track list
Standard edition
1. All Fired Up
2. Boys Don’t Cry
3. Take Me Back Home
4. Fake Life
5. Falling
6. You Are What I Need
7. Never Enough
8. Don’t Hide Your Fears Tonight
9. Lucky Guy
10. A Shift In Time
Deluxe edition
11. Coming Back To You
12. Wrong To Be Right
13. Pride
2024 also marks the 30th anniversary of GUN’s silver-certified, third album Swagger, which stormed into the official UK album chart at #5 and spawned 4 UK Top 40 singles including smash-hit cover “Word Up” (#8), “Don’t Say It’s Over” (#19), “The Only One” (#29), and “Something Worthwhile” (#39). Their boisterous version of Cameo’s “Word Up” also earnt the group their first MTV Europe Music Award.
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