After 17 years in the wilderness, and having never quite met their potential in the mid-90s (when they should have been breaking into the charts alongside Terrorvision, The Wildhearts and the like), Glasgow’s Baby Chaos are back.
This time around they’re aiming a little bigger than they did 20 years ago. Evidence? Just try second track Blackbirds, a mass of riffs that build, flit and flirt quite shamelessly, groggy switches of direction and high, dramatic, layered vocals that are more Muse than Muse ever actually manage these days.
There’s a lot of skill going into these songs, an understanding of hooks and pop nous just built for breaking out of the underdog ghetto.
The Whispering Of Giants, for one, has the kind of accessible, radio-friendly, soaring chorus built for the unveiling of the new MasterChef champion, only with significantly heftier balls than Kings Of Leon and the usual suspects. Poison Ivy Girls, meanwhile, has the grubby glamour of early Suede. A classy comeback from a band worth revisiting./o:p
