Debut five tracker from Dundee quality pop sensation opens up with “Alive” and Ed Muirhead playing piano with force and emotion as the song's main instrumental hook grabs you and refuses to let go, so rarely has a piano intro to a song sounded so immediate. Then lead singer Susan McCathie comes in with this awesome vocal - smooth, firm of pitch, strong, delicious – it just flies, and you almost feel like you're at the start of some kind of anthemic soundtrack or film-based theme song – but then the rhythm section of Gary McQueen on bass and Bruce Langlands on drums, crash in and the whole thing rises up in this hail of symphonic majesty as the rhythm section drives ahead, Susan continues to rise and strengthen, reaching notes that even most female singers wouldn't even dare, while that piano is the strongest darned playing you've heard on a track since Hornsby's glory days as Kris Boyd's electric guitar adds the textural icing on the cake. The song itself positively flares into this chorus as the band provide a canyon-sized musical expanse and the singer soars through the verses with lead and multi-tracked bliss, to the next crashing chorus that is as uplifting as it it is magical. The guitar shines on a red hot brief lead break before the piano chords accelerate, the vocal takes to the skies and the whole thing shoots out towards the universe in a powerful blaze of glory – it's epic, it's dramatic, it's emotive, it's memorable, it's something you want to play over and over – heck, it's just exceptional – and it's just the opening track!! Up next is “Such A Beautiful Smile” where another, slightly less forceful but no less memorable piano melody opens the track as the guitar and rhythm section tumble in and Susan's vocal soars into an urgently delivered verse that tears headlong into the heady chorus, both verse and chorus almost as one when it comes to you not only remembering but also singing along to the song, both during and long after it's gone. Another brief but electrifyingly effective guitar break comes and goes as the song drops back, drops the guitar, hushes a part of the verse then rides back into view to deliver a final burst of verse and chorus before it disappears into the sunset. Following this bout of acceleration, “Share The Love” is a gorgeous, beautifully played and deliciously sung ballad, with a delightfully arranged sea of textures from the lightly melodic guitar, washes of synths and gentle rhythms as Susan's vocal alternates between the strident, uplifting verses and the more cosmic glories of a multi-tracked chorus that is just wondrous. The song rolls effortlessly forward as Gary's bass comes further up in the mix and subtly powerful bursts from the band vie with the more exotic, stretched out playing on the heady melodies that back the chorus, before the waves lap the shore one final time and the feeling fades.
The short and punchy “Vegas” follows with a perfect burst of suitably accelerated pop power as another set of urgent verses and uplifting choruses are sung seemingly effortlessly by Susan, showcasing both range and strength on a dramatic vocal performance with the band driving alongside as the song powers ahead to an abrupt ending. The final track is “Always Rock And Roll” which begins deceptively with wordless vocals from Susan, taking to the celestial skies, only for the band to crunch in on what amounts to the best pop song never to come out of the seventies, with a huge infusion of contemporary pop drama, as this roar of a pop song proves to be absolutely irresistible to head, heart and feet, as you find yourself leaping around the room, singing it at the top of your voice and you've not even heard the3 whole thing through once.
There's another driving set of verses sung immaculately by Susan, leading into the fiercely memorable choruses as the band provide a backing that's right out of the best Elton John stable but injected with modern strength as the guitar flares and the keyboards ride out the melodies above the driving rhythm section backing. Overall, five absolutely faultless examples of nu-pop quality and distinction from a truly unique new band for whom not even the sky is the limit and the world is there for the taking.