From their fashion sense to their bubble-font logo to the washed out photographs that grace the sleeve of their latest album Business Is Dead, there’s something refreshingly retro about Brighton-based band Creeping Jean. As much as the mainstream media push genres like rap and grime, there’s a reason why raunchy rock n’ roll remains ever present and the answer can be found in a band like Creeping Jean. Familiar, but presented with fresh ideas, Business Is Dead is an album for everybody raised on rock…and for those about to be weaned.

I guess if coolness could be gauged then Creeping Jean would be somewhere on the sub-zero, Antarctic scale; they’re freshly frozen, tongue-stuck-to-lamppost cool and radiate a certain charisma. Of course, in the world of rock n’ roll image is secondary and any attempt to use style as a substitute for substance is doomed to failure, but the first few seconds of opening track ‘Mammoth’ blasts any such notions out the window. Some music immediately reaches out and gives your ear a good tug, and this is one such example; big, woolly and with great big horns, it is the kind of track that’s hard to ignore. It bursts from the speakers and stomps all over your living room. Yet, it’s the following ‘Meteorites’ where the album really hits its stride; angular and spiky, it is an amphetamine buzz of a song that’d wake even the most ardent somnambulist. Like an electrocuted snake it moves with savage grace and with a danger that suggests you don’t get too close.

Business Is Dead is comprised of eleven tracks that demand to be performed on the world’s biggest stages and Creeping Jean have the chutzpah to take them there. ‘Sassy Got Shakes’ is an anthem waiting in the wings and is guaranteed to magically turn any rainy afternoon into a sparkly Saturday night. Apparently, Creeping Jean have their own vintage clothes shop and I bet it’s the type of establishment where Mr. Benn resides. There’s definitely some kind of magic going on because the riffs found on cuts like ‘The Rattle’ are pure alchemy and not of this world, it’s as if they’ve been brought back from some other dimension.

Anyhow, Business Is Dead is a record built for the long haul, it flows like an old school album and should be treated as such; preferably on vinyl and with a brief interval when you flip the record over. ‘The Big Cheese’ is a powerful parting shot and one that suggests there’s much more to come from Creeping Jean.

• Business Is Dead is available now.
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Track List:

1. Mammoth
2. Meteorites
3. Always At My Door
4. Sassy Got Shakes
5. Mexican Horse
6. The Way You Dance
7. The Rattle
8. Self Drunk
9. Business Is Dead
10. Love Snakes
11. The Big Cheese