Stiff Kittens are no Stiff Little Fingers. They are from in and around Welsh town Blackwood, the infamous �birthplace� of The Manic Street Preachers. These 3 tracks are samplers from their third album �Bullets� The New Black?� and serve as a cool enough introduction to this band�s taste for melody tasting. Opening track �Big Boned� is a classic-sounding slice of rock �n� roll, and far from these guys sounding like The Manics (as you might hope they might do), they remind of Drugdealer Cheerleader, Strange Fruit (yep, that�s the band in the movie �Still Crazy�) and Chris Cornell�s Audioslave� believe it or not.
Gary Law is the mainman playing guitar and leading the vocals, though Steve Price shares such duties. These sessions have actually been produced by a man who has worked with The Manics, and that�s Steve Brown. Steve�s also worked with Chester�s experimental Glam-pop merchants Mansun, and like Mansun, Stiff Kittens make the most of their pop sense and sensibilities as �The Raven� itself is rinsed through with backing vocals and a mightily tuneful turn.
While Gary sings �There�s a revolution in you,� there won�t be a musical revolution sparked off by their music. No, it�s hardly original and the lyrics are so dull that they make Saddleworth Moor in the icy throes of a Bleak Midwinter look rosy and inviting, but the final track - �Lorenzo The Killer� - is another successfully arm-twisting example of their devotion to produce radio-friendly rock music. And, as a huge plus, singer Gary has an uncanny ability to sound like U2�s Bono in bit parts. 4/5 (STEVE RUDD)
www.newblack.info