A loudhailer full of spittle and a riff-driven chorus herald these London greaseball rockers' debut like a kick in the face. The first 28 seconds of The Decision are so exhilarating, in fact, that nothing which follows can quite live up to its early promise.
The verses might be slightly limp by comparison, but every time that Stonesy singalong hits back, you're won over once again. Frontman Lee Mangan sings in a Camels and bourbon Joe Strummer growl, but with enough West Coast RnR drawl (save the odd Cockernee slip) to let you know exactly where the band are coming from, or indeed going to.
In fact, Steranko are so obviously in love with the USA that, should things go their way, I wouldn't be the least surprised to see them leave home to set up camp at the Whisky A Go Go and never return. There's a refreshing showmanship about Mangan that leaps out of the speakers, and in the single's MC5-esque spoken section, what might be perceived as either a) a total lack of irony, or b) irony slapped on with a trowel. It scarcely seems to matter these days.
more 