Quite simply, "Flesh And Blood" is everything you'd want a Whitesnake album to be - big, bombastic and with stadium sized-choruses to sing your heart out to. Yes, it's about as obvious as you can get but then David Coverdale and co were never about subtlety and this is simply the sound of them doing what they do best.
39. LA GUNS - "The Devil You Know" (Review here)
Since Phil Lewis and Tracii Guns reconvened a few years ago, there's been a notably more angry and fired up sound to LA Guns and "The Devil You Know" carried on nicely where 2018's "The Missing Peace" had left off with the group spitting sheer bile over some seriously gnarled up riffing. While other Sunset Strip veterans seem comfortable chucking out reheated photocopies of their best known stuff, Lewis and Guns are doing anything but and deserve to be commended for that.
38. VOLBEAT - "Rewind, Replay, Rebound" (Review here)
Another surprisingly competent comeback from a band whose creative fire appeared to be on the wane in recent years, "Rewind, Replay, Rebound" saw Volbeat putting out their best album for a good few years sounding like a band who'd rediscovered their mojo after a disappointing previous effort with plenty of spark, energy and variety. Good to have you back guys.
37. KING PRAWN - "The Fabulous New Sounds Of King Prawn" (Review here)
King Prawn's first album in sixteen years was thankfully a good reminder of everything that made them such a uniquely captivating band (princes among the early noughties ska-punk fraternity if you will) first time out mixing a varied sound with angry thought-provoking lyrics and plenty of memorable hooks to create a triumphant comeback. Here’s to many more to come.
36. 1919 - "Futurecide" (Review here)
One of the surprise gems of the year, I'm not sure anyone expected anything out of the ordinary from '80s goth second divisioners 1919 but "Futurecide" actually surpassed their material from back in the day mixing the nervy paranoia of Bauhaus with the grandiose stylings of the Mission in their prime to create something which was way better than it really had any right to be and was also a fitting epitaph for late guitarist Mark Tighe.
35. DIAMOND DOGS - "Recall Rock 'n' Roll And The Magic Soul"
Sure, "Recall Rock 'n' Roll..." isn't anything you wouldn't expect from recently reformed Swedish retro rockers the Diamond Dogs but there's just something about their cocksure Stonesy shuffle that makes for enjoyably straightforward listening and this album was packed full to the brim of great tunes that'll almost certainly sound great when they take it out on the road. Most enjoyable.
34. FLESH TETRIS - "Wrong Kind Of Adults" (Review here)
Comfortably the weirdest album your correspondent ended up listening to this year, Flesh Tetris are the other band of The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing's Andy Heintz and Jez Miller and are every bit as weird as you'd expect and then some. Swinging from X-Ray Spex to the Flying Lizards to Rubella Ballet with a touch of McLusky's lyrical insanity and songs about such subjects as learning to master DIY in order to dispose of corpses and being imprisoned in a cage by your pet cat, easy listening it very much ain't but sometimes that's the way we like it round here.
33. THE STRAY CATS - "40"
Another comeback that was way in excess of what we all expected. Don't get me wrong, much as I like the Stray Cats, this must be at least the fifth "reunion" they've had down the years and more than a few of them have resulted in material that can best be described as "filler". But "40" was a lean mean muscular album which saw messrs Setzer, Rocker and Phantom simply knuckling down and doing what they do best. An unexpected triumph and all the better for it.
32. DANKO JONES - "A Rock Supreme" (Review here)
Hand on heart, Danko Jones has done better albums than this. Yet even when he's arguably not quite firing on all cylinders, the guy can still put out stuff that puts a lot of the competition to shame and there were more than enough such moments on "A Rock Supreme" to make it a worthy purchase. And sometimes business as usual is way better than no business at all...
31. THE WONDER STUFF - "Better Being Lucky"
Compared to the more immediate stuff they're better known for from their '90s commercial peak, "Better Being Lucky" is a more complex beast from the Wonder Stuff that may well take a few listens to get used to. Yet persevere with it and there's some fine stuff indeed in here, showing off a more complex and thoughtful side to Miles Hunt's songwriting. With a new line-up sounding tight and focused behind him, the Wonder Stuff are very much alive and kicking in 2019 and still have plenty to say.
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