Blog Post

The Struts - 'Pretty Vicious' Released; Friday 3rd November 2023

Iain McArthur • Nov 03, 2023

Album Review

It’s two days too soon for Guy Fawkes Night and still seven weeks before Christmas but this new album from The Struts signals the start of party season with a great big bang, a cheeky wee grin and some old-school rock god stardust.

When the clocks go back you need a bit of glamour in the night and this album has more sparkle than Liberace’s jockstrap. As always, it’s the big strutting, preening party bangers that give you ants in your pants and put canned heat in your heels with these guys. ‘Do What You Want’ will come to be regarded as one of their finest-ever romps and it has all the instant familiarity of an old friend – could it be anymore Strutsy? “Remember the Name” is another show-stopper and you definitely won’t forget its Stonesy swagger, shimmering riff, brassy rhythms and an assertive vocal sprinkled with mock-Cockney asides - “suck it and see” indeed.

We already knew Luke Spiller was a proper rock star – the dude has even got his own Funko POP – and he smooches and slides his way through the song ‘Rockstar’ like a silver-tongued cavalier. In it, he plays the part of a “Kamikaze Casanova” lusting after a lady with a fine posterior. In real life he’s got one foot on each side of the Atlantic Ocean but I was pleased to hear he chose the anglicised “I See You Shaking Your Arse” in the lyrics this time. Luke hit peak rock star-mode on US TV the other week performing ‘Rockstar’ on ‘Good Morning America’ while wearing a pink suit and matching fedora hat combo that both Jagger and Bianca would have coveted. He sashayed through the live performance with way more charm and panache than you might expect on an early-morning TV show and he even remembered not to sing the semi-rude word on a breakfast show.
Check it out on You Tube. 

It can’t all be shits and giggles though, can it? When the party stops, even The Struts have to come down sometimes and, on this record, they let some darkness bleed out of the shadows, not least in the morning-after regret of ‘Bad Decisions’ and the moody title track which channels ‘Wicked Games’ vibes over a danceable beat and a stunning Adam Slack guitar solo. ‘Hands on Me’ blends piano, strings and heartbreak in a massive ballad that craves the touch of a former lover while ‘Too Good at Raising Hell’ combines the horny “sex so good the neighbours need a cigarette” line with a jaded acceptance that “it’s getting harder to please me,” which probably isn’t a double entendre.


We haven’t seen this level of light and shade from the band before and they’re all the better for it but if any of that leaves you a bit down-hearted, the disco-infused shimmer of ‘Better Love’ will come riding to your emotional rescue with its sexy sax, soulful groove and compulsory booty-shaking.


The closing track is titled ‘Somebody Someday’ and, of course, I recognised those words from one of my all-time favourite songs, but when it became clear from Luke’s divine delivery of the first line that this is actually a full cover version of Ian Hunter’s ‘Irene Wilde’ under a different title, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and I felt a familiar surge of emotion. The original song was released in 1976 but the back-story of redemption after rejection is sacred, timeless and awesomely inspiring. Listening to this, you can clearly hear the Ian Hunter influence that permeates some of Spiller’s work that must have been hiding in plain sight all along. Luke’s version of this important song more than does it justice; it’s just perfect – absolutely f*cking perfect.


Seven years on from their debut record, the band have reached a new zenith. They have firmly retained their signature good-time sound and groove but now they’ve added more polish, wisdom, lyrical depth and pathos to go with the fun. They’re still instantly recognizable as The Struts but it feels like they’ve “had a bit of work done”, in a good way, and by God they’re looking good on it. They’ve never been better.

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