During their four active years in the early seventies, they shifted two poor selling, hella-influential albums which projectile-vomited punk and glam rock onto the scene. Revered by their peers (The Ramones, Blondie) and responsible for a reel of others (Marc Bolan, Aerosmith, Morrissey, Guns 'N' Roses, Manics, Motley Crue, Bobbie Gillespie, The Libertines) the Dolls rode a runaway train, with excess a byword for indulgement.

Two Dolls departed as substance casualties - drummer Bill Murcia (drink and drugs OD, 1972), legendary smack stringer Johnny Thunders (heroin, 1991). A few months after Thunder's tribute concert, Murcia's replacement, Jerry Nolan, died of a stroke at just 40.

Dolls had dropped like dominoes. Something had to be done. Morrissey copped onto this two years ago when he curated the Meltdown festival. The remaining members: singer David Johanson, guitarist Syl Sylvain and bassist Arthur Kane agreed to the request of the onetime president of the Dolls' official British fan club that they bury the hatchet and play. It was good timing. Kane succumbed to his leukaemia troubles a mere month later.

Meltdown and Mozza were crucial to the Dolls being where they are today. Roping in Hanoi Rocks' Sami Yaffa and Johanson's solo collaborators, One Day... is a mixed bag of polished swaggery blues, trashy punk and mature classic rock balladry.

Any Dolls fan who slips this on will be instantly transported back to 1973 with the cocksure stomp of We're All in Love and the unashamedly decadent OTT romp of Runnin Around.

There are no less than four ballads on here which is no surprise given Johansan's 55 years. Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano is the most notable of these with Michael Stipe guesting. I know, what the hell is Michael Stipe doing on a New York Dolls record? It is an odd pairing, especially when the vocals mix - Stipe's euphoric tones to Johanson's haggard, hoarse drawl make for the most unconventional Dolls recording.

Iggy Pop's appearance on the hooky blues of Gimme Luv & Turn on the Light is much more like it. Anyone who looked kindly on Primal Scream's Riot City Blues need look no further for the blueprint that it was based on, than this record, or of course back to their eponymous debut and its follow up Too Much Too Soon.

Morrissey once said that," Mick Jagger stole everything from David Johanson," which bears some truth because old jumpin' jack flash did not start donning the makeup, boas and prancing round the stage like he was carrying a goldfish bowl in his pants until well after the Dolls rocked with their cocks out.

Compared to A Bigger Bang, the underlying similarity between of these two groups of grandfathers is that their new material treads a very fine line between sounding their own and chancing it as an imitation.

There are great moments of lap slapping rock 'n' roll on this record that make you wonder how far the Dolls could have gone had they not imploded from their own excess. At the same time, listening to a 50-year-old singing about lipstick and cigarettes is about as genuine as the Israeli army claiming it has never intentionally targeted a civilian in Lebanon.

The Dolls get away with it though. I mean hey, the New York Dolls are back! A fair few people will definately be remembering this one.

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end of year feature musicOMH's 50 Best Albums Of 2009 From the nearly 700 albums we reviewed this year, which did our writers love the most? Introduction 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 20-11 | 10-4 | 1-3