If you are a casual listener, you’ll put the first song on here – the glorious intro to “There Goes My Heart” is enough and you might be forgiven for going “blimey, that sounds like Thin Lizzy.” It does.
And there’s a reason. The history of Grand Slam is long and involved. The current iteration (founding member Laurence Archer he of the riffs) has been knocking around for a while, and “Wheel Of Fortune” is their second album proper.
Like the last one, this is classy and brilliantly played hard rock. Mike Dyer, the singer since reforming in 2016 took the Phil Lynott role (see, there’s your reason) and does it his way. It makes for fabulous energetic stuff like “Starcrossed Lovers” and the chorus soars here.
These boys are rock n roll lifers and they know exactly what to do. The skill and experience burst forth on “Come Together (In Harlem)”.
Everything about this is so well done. Scanning the tracklist you might think “Trail Of Tears” was a ballad. It isn’t. Like all of them here, it could have emerged at any point in the history of rock and roll and sounded fresh. Like it belonged. Because it does.
“Feeling Is Strong (Jo’s Song)” very obviously comes from the heart, and “Spitfire” – which does the thing I always love and starts with a solo – comes with much more of a clenched fist, offering a tinge of Saxon.
It is striking how there’s an anger bubbling just below the surface here. “I Wanna Know” does that so well, while “The Pirate Song” adds a touch of blues and you imagine is made with live shows in mind.
It’s been a couple of years since MV saw the band, and it’ll be interesting to see how many of these make the set when they appear again. You would certainly hope that “Afterlife” did as if people still had the chance to buy singles (thanks internet!) then that’s a hit.
One that will be played, of which you can be all but certain, is the acoustic title track. Full of clever wordplay play and it tells the story of knockbacks, the school of life, and lives to tell the tale.
The “Wheel Of Fortune” is a fickle thing. “Take a look at what you could have won” sings Dyer with a feeling that, maybe, just maybe it could have been them.
Archer, though, reckons that Grand Slam “are finally just getting started”. In that case, come on down.
Rating 8.5/10
