I don’t want to blame These Wicked Rivers for a global pandemic, but the first time I saw them was the 8th March 2020. About 10 days later, the world had ended. Just saying.
Of far more importance was what I said about them that night in Wolverhampton: “They’ve got a new record due, and if this is anything to go by, it is going to be a stunner.”
“Eden” was too, and here they are with its follow up, “Force Of Nature” and in the meantime they’ve become an incredibly confident band. Their live shows (which all joking about Covid aside) were always great, have got even better.
That feeling is all the way through the collection. Not least the title track which starts with a solo, like it’s bursting to rock. There’s a groove, an intent and the outro solo is sheer class.
Those words are basically the same for all of it, but what is more evident these days are the choruses. Whether its “The Family” or the even better “Black Gold”, it’s so catchy you’ll need a trip to the clinic.
Everything here is a bit of a step up – which is a special thing considering how good “Eden” was – but “Testify” is so good it could have been on the debut The Answer album.
But here’s the thing: for such a brilliant rock band, it’s the ballads that make you go “wow”.
Half way through, or thereabouts, comes “When The War Is Won”. The centrepiece of the album, the solo from Arran Day is one thing, but the astonishing package is something else. Forget “classic rock”. This is classic.
They follow this up with “Riverboat Man” which is more what you’d associate them with, that is to say that Black Stone Cherry go gold with this (and they wouldn’t have a Hammond Organ like it).
These Wicked Rivers are a heartbeat away from being a full on Blues band, and they’d have been a brilliant one too on the evidence of “Just To Be A Man”.
And if groove is your thing then look no further than “Lord Knows” it’s got one as thick as molasses, and that organ we spoke about before? Well it’s back on the slow building beauty of “Don’t Pray For Me” (not a Little Angels cover) instead, it’s one on which John Hartwell lays things out.
As opposed to laying them bare on the last one, “Lonely Road”. The shortest, most stripped down and the most personal at a guess. The strings are as gorgeous as the words are claustrophobic.
It’s a crowded market, this classic rock in the UK, but let’s make no bones about this, These Wicked Rivers are one of the very best. “Force Of Nature” is as good as it gets.
Rating 9/10
