Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell are once again emerging from the smoke-filled shadows with a fresh selection of unreconstructed, dirt rock anthems. The recorded debut of new drummer Glen Stebbings, The Trouble With The Shovell is a rip-roaring return to action that hammers home this band’s ageless charm, with nine new songs carved straight from the freak rock coalface. The product of the last few years of clandestine exploration, the album heralds the beginning of a new era for our heroes.
Co-produced by the band and studio guru Harvey Summers at Broadoak Studios, in the general vicinity of Bexhill-on-Sea, The Trouble With The Shovell cheerfully defies progress and gets straight to the heart of the matter. Popping and fizzing with pub-bound pugnacity, songs like “Sideways Barnacle” and “Head In A Noose” build smartly on the blueprint laid down on previous records, infusing the classic Shovell sound with even more energy and verve than before.
The Trouble With The Shovell tracklisting:
01 Laughing Gravy
02 A Better Day
03 Sideways Barnacle
04 Head In A Noose
05 Kind Boy
06 Slayed In Full
07 First City Seconds
08 Blue Mountain Dust
09 Another Greasy Spoon
In a world that seems to be constantly searching for the next big, shiny and exciting thing, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell are sticking proudly with balls-out rock’n’roll. Formed in 2008, this scabby-knuckled, booze-sodden trio have never been remotely inclined to follow trends or conform to the cool kids’ idea of what rock should be. Instead, across a series of albums that have been widely acclaimed and almost entirely separate from the rough ‘n’ tumble of contemporary heaviness, they have conquered hearts and minds with ease.
For those who subscribe to the notion that The Riff is king, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell are certified guardians of the good stuff. From the raw, raucous abandon of their 2012 debut album Don‘t Hear It… Fear It! to the ragged and celebratory clatter of 2019’s Very Uncertain Times, these dogged distributors of underground riff worship have conjured some of the most thrillingly grubby sounds of modern times.
The next chapter in the band’s ongoing friendship with the legendary Rise Above Records, The Trouble With The Shovell offers a ferocious alternative to the blank-eyed, AI-generated mulch that currently dominates airwaves and accursed social media. A vibrant and vivacious eruption of honesty, exhilaration and undiluted, goofy good times, it probably won’t propel Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell to international stardom, but it fu*king should do.
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell are:
Johnny Gorilla
Louis Comfort-Wiggett
Glen Stebbings
Follow Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1C4fGfpZHo/