Bleeding Rainbow: Interrupt (Kanine Records)

Gushing praise from Dave Grohl, a new name and a debut album; Bleeding Rainbow are flying. Despite this being vocalists Sarah Everton and Rob Garcia’s third creation together, Interrupt holds all the raw energy of a debut. Especially that of Sonic Youth’s first major label LP Goo, or Smashing Pumpkins’s Gish, bands which Bleeding Rainbow owe a lot of their sound on this album to, alongside much of the rest of America’s bands that seemed to emerge from garages and basements around the early nineties.

Like that generation, there’s a fair kick of frustrated anger, a good deal focussed on matters of the heart and another thing that Bleeding Rainbow prove themselves to be very adept at; creating a hook. A number of choruses on here will have you dancing, screaming or wailing in your bedroom as you get angsty enough to feel like it would be a fitting dance move to kick something.

For example, lead single ‘So You Know’ has an irresistible chorus which builds anticipation listen after listen. It uses the title to conclude each verse and chorus with satisfying aplomb. It’s a formula that appears in many grunge/alt. rock songs, but it can never happen enough times that your ears stop chasing after its hook. Then right at the end the song gives a triumphant airing of the irritating situation that the longing lover is stuck in. It is brilliantly addictive.

The other standout song ‘Images’ pitches itself as classic grunge disembowelment of anything that vaguely resembled calm or contented in the first half of the album. It’s so Sonic Youth or even Hole.

When not totally vying for the attention of your base emotions, an instrumental called ‘Monochrome’ proves that Bleeding Rainbow can pause for a moment. It keeps the album ticking over nicely with some well-controlled feedback, harmonised guitar and vocal cooing.

There seems to be a bit of a mini revival of ‘90s style guitar driven rock at the moment and Interrupt is part of that, much of this album could have been born in Sonic Youth or Smashing Pumpkins’s basement. The great thing about Bleeding Rainbow is their talent to hit upon a catchy hook. And where some tracks drift off the boil, the motifs, pile-driving raw energy or dizzy emotion of ‘So You Know,’ ‘Images’ or ‘Out of Line’ remind you why you were listening in the first place.

The next stop? More Grohl praise, more consistency when they’re not hitting those highs. And from where they are now is there a possible evolution to a Daydream Nation or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness?