Reef

Releasing their first album in 18 years since the release of 2000’s ‘Getaway’, an album which failed to ignite to much excitement in the teenage me, it’s with some trepidation I approach this new record. But thankfully ‘Revelation’ finds the band on brilliant form and eradicating all pre-existing fears.

Their first album with new guitarist Jesse Wood, it was recorded in Ireland with Producer George Drakoulias (The Black Crowes, Primal Scream, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers). “We didn’t want to just make a good record, we wanted to make a great record,” says Reef vocalist Gary Stringer of ‘Revelation’. “We were writing the songs for two and a half years, road-testing them when we were on tour. We’d play four or five new songs every night, really watching the crowd. If their eyes glazed over or they went to the bar, then we dropped those songs! But if a song engaged with them – a melody they can hook into, a guitar riff – then that was a real pointer for how we went about it. Hopefully that’s helped make the album is as strong as it is.”

From start to finish it’s an enthralling listening, touching all aspects of the blue-rock spectrum. From the massive guitar riff of album opener and title track ‘Revelation’, a track overflowing with AC/DC vim and vigour, to the Led Zeppelin inspired ‘Just Feel Love’, the Sheryl Crow featuring current single 'My Sweet Lord', the anthemic ‘Ball & Chain’ and soulful closer ‘Like A Ship (Without A Sail)’, it’s an album that doesn’t let up from start to finish.

With frontman Gary Singer’s voice lending itself to the blues perfectly, and the band sounding fresher than you’d anticipate after such a long absence from the UK music scene, ‘Revelation’ is a roaring success. One of 2018s best new rock albums from one of the naughties best bands.