In summary:

Scottish rockers Gun have delivered one of the standout albums of the 1990s. Swagger perfects the big arena rock sound and is packed with anthems from beginning to end.

Swagger receives 10/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Gun’s brand of blue collar rock and faux American accents was always appealing, but never more so than third album Swagger.

Its big hooks and thunderous drums grab you from the first moments of opener Stand In Line and never let go, as they set about creating one of the best hard rock records of the 1990s.

It’s credit to Gun that they had already amassed a decent-sized following by this point in their career thanks to their solid first and second LPs, and that they’ve also established themselves as one of the UK’s most dependable live acts leading to support slots for the likes of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi.

However, they’ve never sounded as impactful or relevant as they do right here!

The star of the show is, of course, their thunderous cover of Cameo’s Word Up.

It’s a track which has been redone by many artists over the years, but Gun’s version is widely considered to be the definitive one. The Glaswegian rock giants take what was already a great tune and turn into a stomping rock song, with frontman Mark Rankin and guitarist Jools Gizzi really coming into their own with high energy performances.

The song landed them their first UK Top 10 hit single, and even an MTV Award.

What’s perhaps even more impressive, though, is that Gun must’ve known they had a hit on their hands with this song in the studio yet they still didn’t take their foot off the gas, because the material which fills out the remainer of Swagger is just as strong as that moster hit!

Cue; Don’t Say It’s Over.

Mark Rankin is in the best form of his career as he cruises through this uptempo rocker, his Billy Idol-esque baritone vocals acting as the perfect foil for Gizzi’s face-melting guitar riffs. There’s no if’s or but’s or maybe’s about it, this track is an absolute barnstomer which deserves to be remembered as one of the best rock songs of the decade.

And it’s not alone, either.

The closing duo of One Reason and Vicious Heart are right up there, capturing the essence of big 90s radio rock, and while several other tracks throughout the running order appear to use a similar template to that of Don’t Say It’s Over (e.g. Find My Way, Crying Over You, Seems Like I’m Losing You) the riffs and melodies are strong enough in their own right that it actually works.

Interestingly, if you follow Gun’s later work after their 2009 comeback (e.g. Favourite Pleasures, Hombres) you’ll be keen to learn that Swagger is the LP where eventual frontman Dante Gizzi’s backing vocals really start to come into earshot. Gizzi’s higher, raspier tone works well alongside the low register of Rankin and you can hear it in full effect on tracks like Stand In Line.

Special praise must also be handed out to producer Chris Sheldon.

Sheldon succeeds in his task of making the band sound bigger and (dare I say it) more American than ever before, and it’s a shame that Swagger was their only collaboration because his production style was perfect for them. By building the mix around Jools Gizzi’s guitar hooks and Mark Kerr’s pummelling drums, he creates a record which still sounds loud and polished all these years later.

In closing, although Gun would go on to create some fantastic albums in their older years (especially the two I’ve highlighted above), Swagger is still largely thought of as their career-defining piece of work. The quality of the material here is second to none, and it’s an album which shows us that they weren’t merely on tour with Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, they were in class.

In summary:

Scottish rockers Gun have delivered one of the standout albums of the 1990s. Swagger perfects the big arena rock sound and is packed with anthems from beginning to end.

Swagger receives 10/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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