If you’re old enough to remember the early 2000s you’ll recall what a great time it was – before Facebook, the iPhone & the banning of smoking in pubs ruined the world for everyone. For those of you who were there watching Jackass and drinking alcopops – or were unlucky enough not to experience it first time around – Cinema Stereo are here to give you a taste of what those heady days sounded like.

I don’t like the term ‘alt rock’ – rock is just rock – and these guys ROCK. With a sound somewhere between The Killers and The Strokes having an impromptu garage jam session with The Faces and The Black Crowes after a Jack Daniels drenched afternoon of playing pool in a Nashville dive bar, Cinema Stereo deliver an album of stomping guitar driven rock n roll that thousands will no doubt be singing along to at summer festivals all over the world next year.

Album opener ‘Flood’ is a radio friendly guitar driven banger and we are immediately into the singalong choruses that this album is full of. ‘Over The Edge’ opens like a Strokes song but refuses to remain as gloomy – singer Ian Rayha’s wonderful vocals make a defiant stand when he sings ‘don’t try to push me over the edge’. Rayha’s vocals on each song go from 80s glam metal highs to 70s booze rock lows with ease, and the individual personalities of guitar and drums shine through on every track. It really is an intoxicating mix. It’s the sound of a band that are pushing their limits and refuse to stop until they get what they deserve.

The fantastic rock and roll tunes just keep on coming. The stomp rock of the brilliant ‘Expectations’ is immediately followed by the Queen-esque piano intro of ‘Ride to the Sun’. Every classic rock album needs its’ epic acoustic track, and on this album it’s ‘Flowers’, a soaring ballad that sounds to the untrained ear like it is played on harp and mandolin. Think Zeppelin ‘Bron-Yr-Aur’, or Guns N Roses when they unplugged Slash’s guitar and told him to get down off the piano.

Album highlight for me is ‘Lean on You’, with its’ Status Quo guitar and singalong chorus of ‘lalalalalalalalalala lean on you’. It’s a simple rock song, and it’s brilliant. There is a hint of reggae on ‘All I Want’, with ANOTHER sing at the top of your voice catchy chorus and ANOTHER guitar riff throughout.

All 12 tracks on this excellent album are awesome. Cinema Stereo are touring the UK this November and I highly recommend you check them out in the small venues they are playing while you can, because just like the bands of the 2000s that these guys sound most like they will be playing to much bigger crowds in stadiums and at festivals by this time next year.