In summary:

Gun complete their sensational comeback to the “top table” of rock music with an album that’s loaded with some of their finest riffs and anthems to date. Favourite Pleasures is an outstanding listen.

Favourite Pleasures receives 9/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Few could’ve predicted this, huh?

Scottish rockers Gun didn’t seem like they were going to ruffle many feathers when they re-united in 2009 (minus frontman Mark Rankin), but they’ve since released a string of strong LPs in a golden run which has now culminated in what’s possibly the finest album of their career so far.

Seriously, Favourite Pleasures is that good!

From the moment She Knows begins pummelling it’s thumping beat through the speakers, it’s clear they’ve ironed out the kinks of troublesome sixth album Frantic (2015) (which many fans deemed “too pop”), and they don’t waste any time reminding us that there are few bands on Earth who can match the songmanship of Gun when they crank up the volume of their guitars and drums and really let loose.

Other standout moments include the devilishly good melody of mid-album rocker Black Heart, Dante Gizzi’s bending vocals on title track Favourite Pleasures, and the absolutely gorgeous guitar riff of Tragic Heroes which sounds like it was pulled from the grips of U2 (when they were good, that is).

The title track Favourite Pleasures is an outstanding effort worthy of a place alongside anything from their stacked back-catalogue.

The way the frontman’s raspy vocals curl around Jools Gizzi’s expertly crafted guitar hooks shows us that, after a few attempts to figure out how to transition from Mark Rankin’s lower register to Dante Gizzi’s wildly different style, they finally seem to have cracked the code.

Speaking of Gizzi, he deserves special praise here.

Filling the shoes of predecessor Mark Rankin was a tall order, but in the last few years the former bass player has really worked on honing his craft, and it’s to his credit that there are numerous occasions during the listening of this album where it’s difficult o remember that he wasn’t always the frontman of this band.

His success is testament both to his vocal range (think Axl Rose meets Gerard Way) and an uncanny ability to pen thought-provoking lyrics in as few words as possible.

Those skills are front and centre on tracks like the aforementioned She Knows, where Gizzi recalls a story from his younger years when he tried to seduce a beautiful American lady and recoiled in shock upon discovering she was racist.

“I’m colour blind, but you’re caught in two.”

SHE KNOWS

Twisted anthem Take Me Down, on which the band show a much darker side, is another career highlight.

Don’t get me wrong, arriving home to find your partner cheating while your kids sleep in the adjacent room can’t have been a very nice experience, but it’s truly haunting to hear Gizzi recount the ensuing fit of rage that led to the cheating partner being bashed over the head with an empty bottle of wine, and the “friend” receiving said bottle as a leaving gift directly up the rectum.

The story is told from the chilling perspective of sitting in quiet despair, with time standing still in the moments spent waiting for the authorities to arrive on the scene and make an arrest (“I’m shaking with anger / I can’t believe the things that I’ve done”). It works wonderfully well, and this deeply personal lyrical style continues to appear throughout the LP, most notably on the Status Quo-esque Here’s Where I Am, another stinging rocker which delivers a hefty dose of bitterness:

“You tried to blame me for the things you’ve done.
Your guilty conscience has got you on the run.
The dirty secrets that you tried to hide.
A love affair with Mr. 3rd time lucky.”

HERE’S WHERE I AM

Not everything hits the mark, of course.

The best examples are the flat Silent Lovers and the chugging Go To Hell, both of which could’ve been replaced by the unexpectedly strong collection of “bonus songs” included on the extended version of the album (take your pick from 20 Storeys, Come Undone, and a cover of You’ve Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party), but these missteps are forgiven thanks to the tear-jerking nostalgia of top tier album closer The Boy Who Fooled The World and the quality of the rest of the album as a whole.

In hindsight, we weren’t really sure what to expect when these Scottish rockers announced their return in 2009 minus talismanic singer Mark Rankin, but they’ve since released a string of solid albums and Favourite Pleasures is the pick of the lot. The lyrical content makes it their most personal album to date, and the skyscraper riffs cement it as one of the best pure rock albums of the year so far. This LP handed Gun their first UK Top 20 album since 1994’s Swagger, which is an impressive feat in itself, but perhaps the biggest compliment I can give it is to draw your attention to one of Dante Gizzi’s closing lyrics and point out that this is something which Gun manage to accomplish several times throughout the course of Favourite Pleasures.

“There’s something about a song that gets in your head.
You could hear it just once and then it’s hard to forget.”

THE BOY WHO FOOLED THE WORLD

In summary:

Gun complete their sensational comeback to the “top table” of rock music with an album that’s loaded with some of their finest riffs and anthems to date. Favourite Pleasures is an outstanding listen.

Favourite Pleasures receives 9/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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