Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse - Hot Nostalgia Radio (2024) Hi-Res

Whatever the most rock n roll thing you can think of, from Alice Cooper’s snake, Lemmy, just in general, or Elvis at the ’68 Comeback Special, then the opener “Oh Yeah!” here on “Hot Nostalgia Radio” runs it close.

It is no more and no less than everything that’s ever been glorious, dangerous, or filthy since rock ‘n roll began in the space of two minutes thirty-two seconds. Beaux Gris Gris are great, great.

How could anything live up to that? Well, “Wild Woman” – somewhere between The Black Keys, The Cold Stares, and The White Stripes – runs it close. “You be good to me, and I’ll be good to you” sings Greta Valenti, you don’t want to imagine the alternative.

Big, thick blues grooves are the order of the day on “Satisfy Your Queen”, and again, if you don’t satisfy her however she demands, you’d better run. Plus, there’s an air of garage rock about “I Told My Baby” like it’d pull a knife out at a gunfight if it had to.

Even the slower ones occasionally drip with lust. “Middle Of The Night” is horny (and it’s also got horns on…) somewhere like a New Orleans second line, but a word for the guitar of Robin Davey, which is sensational

We’ve had some fun with this so far (as we should) but “…Radio” is wonderfully adept. “Sad When I’m Dancing” is wonderfully timeless soul, and there’s a soulful side to “All I Could Do Was Cry” too, and it’s at that moment you realise what a voice Valenti has.

There’s a beauty and a warmth about “The Runaway”. The closing solo is special as well, and there are treats everywhere you look here, and if the second half of the album is a lot less raucous than the first, then the likes of “Penny Paid” are so charming you can’t resist them anyway.

The piano work from Sam Robertson on “Marie” is light and airy, taking things into a bit of a Wandering Hearts direction. Indeed, if Side A is the Saturday night, then Side B, as it were is the easy like Sunday morning. “Let’s Ride” doesn’t have a care in the world, and neither should it.

The accordion-drenched closer “Mama Cray” couldn’t sound more Cajun if it tried but try and get the chorus out of your head. You won’t want to.

It’s interesting, perhaps that my introduction to the band was a live album they put out last year. I loved that and went to see them play a concert. Like the record, it sprawled all over the place, running over curfew and seeing Valenti end up singing on a table in another room from where the stage was.

So it is then, that “Hot Nostalgia Radio” bottles that same vibe. This is a band that is whatever it wants to be, at any given moment. Their Anglo-American makeup is about more than just their location. It’s in their heart and soul too, this is the sound of cultures clashing, and both sides of them are on display in glorious neon flashing signs.