LA Guns have gone back to the future in every way on this new release, from using long time producing master Andy Johns to the sound and placement of the tunes on the disc, but most importantly to writing some good hard rocking tunes with Phil Lewis doing what he does best, some good glam punk rock and roll screaming. The song “Hollywood Forever” has Phil belting out the song and giving Blackie Lawless a run for his money and it features a cool Iron Maiden type guitar solo. “You Better Not Love Me” is a catchy poppy hard rock number with Phil’s vocals harking back to his first band GIRL days, which was my favorite era of Phil Lewis. The band pulls off a cool Gary Glitter drum beat on “Eel Pie”, which fit’s the English theme of the tune as well as with the Glam street rock anthem “Vine Street Shimmy”. “Sweet Mystery”, “Burn” and “Underneath The Sun” are well played slow tempo songs, but the highlight of the disc is “Dirty Black Night”, which is the modern day companion to “Sex Action”, with it’s similar sound, structure and subject matter! Also standing out is the very British sounding GIRL style boogie woogie song “Queenie” and the sung in Spanish “Arrana Negra”, which is another old school Sweet/Slade sounding track. This CD has it all, good production, good song writing, good playing and most importantly, Phil Lewis’ voice is in rare form circa his GIRL/Torme days. Old school fans will rejoice and new school fans will rediscover as Hollywood Forever is a good mix of old members mixing with young blood.
Teddy Heavens