Bath’s The Heavy have emerged. After some considerable hype, with their rather ostentatiously-titled debut LP Great Vengeance and Furious Fire.

While the title may lead one to expect the aural equivalent of being pumped full of lead by Samuel L. Jackson and that bloke from Saturday Night Fever, the album is actually an infectiously sleazy collection of rock ‘n’ soul stompers that hit much more than they miss.

‘You Didn’t Know’ is a highlight; a gutsy blues holler underpinned by a rough and raw guitar line, while ‘Colleen’ channels the spirit of Prince with a brilliantly camp falsetto vocal.

Inevitably, with such a haphazard approach, there are some decidedly ropey moments, particularly the self-consciously ‘wacky’ rap on ‘Girl’ which boasts the line ‘it must be the way you wear your jeans’, which should lead you to wonder exactly how many ways one can wear a pair of jeans.

At just ten tracks long, Great Vengeance is a short blast of heady fun that contains some genuinely impressive moments; surely it wouldn’t be too much to suggest that The Heavy have got a truly great album in them?

Ben Davis