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If The Darkness had come back with this as an introduction to their new material it would have been torn to bits in seconds. "It's ironic" would be the cry; "it's a tongue in cheek Led Zeppelin".
But there is nothing ironic about Never Too Late (nor indeed the B-sides Rock Bottom Blues and Some Unity). The Answer may well kneel at the altar of Plant and Page, but this sounds like a very serious homage indeed. At the crossroads of rock and blues is where you'll find them, not selling their souls to Beelzebub mind; instead they'd be laying down riffs with grooves a mile deep. Besides, these songs have more soul than the devil can handle. If you want soulless, check out the judges on X-factor who have boiled music down to pure commodity - that's where the devil's work lies.
Producer Ted Jenson (Metallica/Korn) has captured their sound beautifully. Rather than polishing all the edges off, he's kept them dirty and rough, and in doing so allows the band space to breathe. The build up towards the end of Never Too Late is masterfully handled, carefully negotiating the path between chaos and control. In lesser hands, it could have sounded disastrous; instead, it's purely cathartic. The Answer may well be rehashing the past, but they've done it with energy and humility. If you're ever asked to define Rock and Roll you now have The Answer.
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