Leeds rockers The Glitterati could hardly have asked for a better chance at establishing themselves so early in their careers. For their debut album they were flown out to Los Angeles to work with legendary producer Mike Clink, whose previous work includes Guns 'n' Roses albums Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion I and II. After just two years together, to live out their LA rawk dreams must have been heaven.
As you'd expect, their self-titled debut album certainly has that classic rock sound with crunching guitars and soaring lead vocals. But do they match up to Axl Rose and Slash? Well, this certainly isn't a debut to match Appetite, but it's not a bad effort either.
Lead singer Paul Gautrey claimed that they intended to make an album that was all good, rather than one with just one or two singles, and they have managed to make most of the songs individually memorable in some way, though new single Heartbreaker does stand out.
Back in Power and Do You Love Yourself? are both excellent shouty anthems that are bound to be live favourites, and The Glitterati's sincere approach to classic rock is refreshing compared to the self-amused smirk of The Darkness, while their songs are much better. Don't Do Romance is the exception though, being a slightly dull ballad, despite the title, and it certainly doesn't play up to the band's strengths.
It's a relief that the next song, First Floor is a much better offering, with great riffs and punchy verses building up to a Baby Chaos (remember them?) style chorus. Still Thinking About You is another fun song, while the opening to Here Comes A Close Up displays Gautrey's Steven Tyler-esque howl.
Keep Me Up All Night is a quiet closing song, but is at least much more memorable than Don't Do Romance. The Glitterati's debut is very slickly-produced and they play with plenty of spirit, but at the moment they really don't have enough substance to their songs to match. There's enough promise to hint that they might one day live up to their surroundings, but Appetite For Destruction this is not.