“I got the heart of Las Vegas burning in my soul, I got the eye of the tiger, bleeding rock n roll. Still got the scars from a long lost Saturday night, I am a man on a motherfucking mission tonight”.
Thats the chorus on “Man On A Mission” and if rock n roll bands have mission statements and I hope to Lemmy that they don’t, this is Kickin’ Valentina’s.
As soon as “Bloody Kisses” starts, you know what you’re getting from the Danish four-piece. Sleaze, but sleaze that’d bring a knife to a gunfight to inflict maximum damage.
That’s the vibe throughout. “Dirty Rhythm” makes a chorus out of “Oooh it’s like a kick in the face” and the guitar solo from Heber Pampillon is filthy.
“Fireback” offers you the chance to “stick your middle finger right in the air”, and it’s 1991 all over again. This isn’t a bad thing. I was 16 and had hope. This is the sort of thing that soundtracked our rebellion, such as it was.
This is nothing more and nothing less than a brilliant record. “Turn Me Loose” proves that nice boys never did play rock n roll. There’s even something a little more anthemic on “Died Laughing” but even here, there’s dirt below the fingernails. “Takin’ A Ride” is an honest-to-goodness biker rocker.
“Amsterdam” as you’d expect is the type of debauchery that would scare the living shit out of mere mortals, “Ride Or Die” enters the world of Sons of Anarchy, while fans of cowbell will love the title track.
Indeed, it was when the title track hit that MV realised what this album reminded us of. The Dangerous Toys. Probably long forgotten (they had a hit song called “Sport’n A Woody”….) and effectively it’s proof positive that the music that was supposed to die when Kurt fired up his guns and brought his mates around, is in rude health 30 odd years on.
“Star Spangled Fist Fight” is gloriously sleazy and just glorious. You can run that up your flagpole and salute it.
Rating 9/10
