The BellRays – Black Lightning – Fargo – FR21229 - ***

For two decades The BellRays have sounded like a cranked up Seventies Detroit scuzz band fronted by a Sixties soul belter. When the reformed MC5 toured with replacement vocalists The Bellrays' Lisa Kekaula gave her best punk rock Aretha. Their fourteenth album varies the mix with the big funk of Sun Comes Down, the showboating blues of Anymore, and the sing-along pop-punk-soul moment Power To Burn. The BellRays remain reliably better than is necessary, Kekaula the eternal superstar-in-waiting.

(25/5/11)