The Jokers

After three albums it’s probably all worn very thin and they’ve heard it all before. But it is worth mentioning that if you are going to write lyrics like “She’s on Fire/ She’s too hot to touch/She’s on Fire/I want her so much” from, well, She’s on Fire, then the name of your band may well come up for discussion, possibly in the same breath as Steel Panther.

Lyrical shortcomings aside, Hurricane is not a bad hard rock album. It touches base with the likes of Free, early Rush and the usual suspects. There’s nothing here that’s going to change the landscape of rock today, but that’s unlikely what The Jokers are looking to do. This is comfort zone rock, played with passion. The title track settling into a mid-paced groove, Angel’s blues rock and Lockdown heading into AC/DC territory and so on and so forth.

With four tracks containing rock in the song title, there’s no doubt where they are coming from. The trouble is, however well performed the songs are (and that can’t be denied), it all becomes a little predictable after a while and at 60 minutes – if you include the bonus tracks – it becomes a bit of a grind.