3. The Wildhearts – “Renaissance Men ”

Wow. What a way to come back! In the early nineties, The Wildhearts were the UK heavy rock’s great white hope. They released a corker of debut album in 1993, headlined the second stage at the 1994 Monsters of Rock and in ‘Caffeine Bomb’ and ‘I Want To Go Where The People Go’ released two of the finest pop rock singles of the decade. However, by 1997 it had all fallen apart fuelled by a toxic mix of substances misuse, personal turmoil and a sudden right turns into distinctly dark material. The band resurfaced again in the early noughties but the spectres of drugs and mental ill health continued to dog them as they spent most of the decade playing a hockey cocky of splitting and reforming and splitting again. This decade saw no new material but numbers of one off nostalgia tours in a host of different line up iterations playing their classic first two records in their entirety.

Then last year something truly magical happened, the classic 1993 line up played together for the first time in twenty four years and it clicked, it just clicked. It was like the tumultuous off, on and off again years had not happened. Sensing there was something very special happening, they rushed back into the studio and produced this. “Renaissance Men” is certainly their best record since the first one and perhaps even their best ever record. This is a masterclass in pop rock. Gorgeous hooks, harmonies a go-go and melodies all over the shop. Every song is a banger. Jaunty, jump and down classics. I want to see the band perform the entire album live as it is designed to be sung along to. It is a veritable work of genius. You need to work hard to make it look this effortless. This is pop rock at its very very best, infectious and highly accessible, but never light-weight. This is the perfect marriage of stinging lyrics and soaring choruses. A return from the brink has never been this triumphant.