Album Review: The Strypes - Little Victories

3/5

There’s a temptation to look on The Strypes’ second album as the Cavan quartet’s de facto debut.

Initially, these recently graduated school friends won acclaim as a glorified covers act, their shaggy interpretations of The Faces and Jeff Beck sending a tingle down the collective spine of late middle age rock fans for whom popular music has been on an irrevocable slide since Eric Clapton’s guitar solo on Layla.

However, the sense of The Strypes representing retro wish fulfilment for an audience slightly too old for TFI Friday first time around is much reduced here, with the group moving beyond Blues Breakers pastiche over the course of a collection by turns cathartic and melodic, and consistently rollicking.

You can’t fake wide-eyed hunger, a quality Little Victories possesses in abundance.

That isn’t to say the LP is heartily recommended. As has been consistently the case in their short history, The Strypes remain indebted to their heroes, whether winking and nodding towards Thin Lizzy (‘Get Into It’, ‘I Need To Be Your Only’), tapping The Jam (‘Cruel Brunette’) or drawing on The Undertones (‘Scumbag City’).

Indeed, there’s an argument that the individual songs are of secondary importance and that The Strypes’ true strength is youthful brio.

They are ticking off a check-list of stereotypes but, because this music is new to them, even their most pastiche-heavy moments are winningly disarming. However cliched, their enthusiasm is genuinely infectious.