Kev Rowland Lover Under Cover hail from Gothenburg, Sweden and this is the follow-up to their 2012 debut, ‘Set The Night On Fire’ which I have to confess and say that I haven’t heard. Formed by Mikael Carlsson (bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals), the rest of the band comprise vocalist and keyboard player Mikael Erlandsson (Last Autumn’s Dream), Martin Kronlund (Gypsy Rose, Phenomena) on guitars and drummer Perra Johnsson. The more I played this the more I felt that I was listening to the bastard child of The Quireboys and Poison, more smooth and polished than the former and with a more ballsy and slightly more bluesy edge than the latter. In fact, the longer it stayed on the player the more I became convinced that easily the worse thing about these guys is their name! Whoever thought that Lover Under Cover was a great name for a band should be taken out and shot…

There is a cover song on the album, and interestingly it isn’t mentioned within the press release, and it took me a little while to place who performed the original. Lover Under Cover call it “Toy Soldier”, but it originally had a ‘s’ on the end when it was sung by Martika back in 1989, and was then sampled by Eminem in 2005 as “Like Toy Soliders”. Whatever it is called, this is a strong version and doesn’t sound out of place on the album. Great musicianship, aligned with powerful hooks and great vocals, this is a melodic hard rock album that is a delight from the beginning to the very end, and is well worth seeking out. www.escape-music.com