"Sounds like a band remembering where they buried the treasure": Gun have stalled in the past, but on Hombres they sparkle

Cocky and reloaded, Gun are firing on all six cylinders again on album number nine, Hombres

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Gun: Hombres cover art
(Image: © Cooking vinyl)

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In the 40 years since the Glaswegian band’s second album Gallus graced the UK Top 10, Gun have stalled and rebuilt more than once. 

Even since 2010 – when it dawned on the Gizzi brothers that the new singer their band needed had been in the band all along, called Dante and playing bass alongside his sibling guitarist Jools – studio albums have been so-so. But, finally, Hombres sounds like a band remembering where they buried the treasure. 

The opening salvo of All Fired Up, Boys Don’t Cry (featuring a neat solo by new guitarist ‘Ru’ Macfarlane), the thumping Take Me Back Home and Fake Life are all classic Gun. Inevitably, that suggests Jools and Dante are guilty of re-framing their first three albums – but easy to forgive because Hombres sparkles. 

Maybe we didn’t need three bonus tracks added to the 10 nominated strongest, but even track 12, Wrong To Be Right, is joyously infectious

Neil Jeffries
Neil Jeffries

Freelance contributor to Classic Rock and several of its offshoots since 2006. In the 1980s he began a 15-year spell working for Kerrang! intially as a cub reviewer and later as Geoff Barton’s deputy and then pouring precious metal into test tubes as editor of its Special Projects division. Has spent quality time with Robert Plant, Keith Richards, Ritchie Blackmore, Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore – and also spent time in a maximum security prison alongside Love/Hate. Loves Rush, Aerosmith and beer. Will work for food.