Gun – Hombres (DeLuxe Edition 2 CD) 2024, MP3+FLAC, REAL CD

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Eighties Scottish hard rock / pop rockers GUN surprised a few weeks ago with perhaps their best album to date: “Hombres“. This Deluxe Edition digipak includes bonus tracks, songs recorded during the album sessions, and a different cover art.

Indeed, “Hombres” is the best LP the group has recorded since the ’80s. It’s that good. It’s a brilliant record – comfortably their best for three decades, and if you missed the melodies, hooks and catchy choruses of their classic album ‘Gallus’, now these are back!
”Hombres” shows that Gun is still far away from retirement. The spirit of rock’n’roll is what keeps the guys young at heart and it is their ninth album that in a way connects to the early days. GUN has combined all their strengths and stringed them together which leads to a lively, emotional and catchy hard rock release that provides a great time.

”Hombres” is easily GUN’s strongest album since their 2009 reformation. Whereas Break The Silence, Frantic, and 2017’s Favourite Pleasures had some great songs on them, they also had their patchy moments. Their frequent dabbling with covers and reworkings almost made you doubt that they could hit the levels of former glories again.
Well, they have, and then some.

”Hombres” is packed with high-quality classic hard rock / melodic songs throughout. It’s an album that quite comfortably sits alongside the likes of Taking On The World, Gallus, and Swagger, their first three, still superb, albums.
Founding brothers Dante and Giuliano Gizzi claim that they needed to make an album “that would save the band…and save themselves”, and they’ve certainly bullseyed that target. Indeed, the first single All Fired Up serves as both a powerful introduction to the album and also provides a mission statement. Indeed, it fizzes out of the traps, a hooky rocker with a great sing-along chorus. As if to hammer home this message, Boys Don’t Cry and Take Me Back Home continues in a similar vein without stopping for breath.

At the same time as featuring powerful, very well-produced rockers, this album’s strength lies in the diversity of influences and music on offer. They have broadened their sound and the album is all the better for it.
In particular, the back-to-back combination of Falling, and You Are What I Need lift this album to higher ground, no GUN related pun intended. The former is a memorable pop-rocker, with an almost balladic quality. It has a real hypnotic quality as the song builds. There is also a gospel feel to it, as does You Are What I Need. The combination of backing vocalists and a great bluesy rock track works perfectly.

Lucky Guy is an instant favorite. It’s a catchy, glam-influenced track, that has a real earworm of a chorus. Indeed, it’s instantly familiar, which is the sign of a great song, isn’t it? Like a lot of songs here, you can tell it’s going to transfer to the live arena with ease.
Were this album to have been released thirty years ago, they’d have had a few big hit singles on their hands that’s for sure. The album properly wraps up on the anthemic A Shift In Time. Indeed, it bookends things perfectly. It has a great singalong, again almost gospel quality, and yet another memorable chorus.

Since getting back together fifteen years ago, GUN have been threatening to release an album this strong, where the quality doesn’t let up throughout. The three preceding albums were good, but not up there to their early albums’, albeit very high, bar.
This time they have matched those levels. We dare to say “Hombres” is their best album ever, as takes the best from the band’s early LPs and adds the maturity that only comes with age.
Welcome back guys, it’s been a long time coming!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

01. All Fired Up
02. Boys Don’t Cry
03. Take Me Back Home
04. Fake Life
05. Falling
06. You Are What I Need
07. Never Enough
08. Don’t Hide Your Fears Tonight
09. Lucky Guy
10. A Shift In Time
BONUS TRACKS:
11 – Coming Back To You
12 – Wrong To Be Right
13 – Pride

Dante Gizzi [lead vocals]
Giuliano ‘Jools’ Gizzi [guitar]
Paul McManus [drums]
Andy Carr [bass]
Tommy Gentry [guitar]

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