Gun have slowly built their way back into contention since reuniting in 2008. Calton Songs (named after their home district of Glasgow) is a rum affair indeed.
There’s an all-action new song, Backstreet Brothers, which kicks like an especially energised mule, and it’s strong enough to suggest an album of new material might have been the way ahead. Elsewhere it's ‘sort of acoustic’ versions of old Gun favourites.
So Word Up! has a brass section, backing vocals and a flamenco guitar solo; 2012 single Frantic is given a Stills-Young Band twang; and the hardy Taking On The World becomes a cousin of Extreme’s More Than Words.
The new setting mostly works, so Better Days takes on an elegiac hue born of experience, and Inside Out’s melody finally takes centre stage. It’s difficult to avoid the suggestion that water is being trod, but it’s no disgrace.
