In summary:

Scottish rockers Gun deliver anthem after anthem on their third LP. They have perfected the big rock sound, and the end result is one of the best albums of the 1990s.

Swagger receives 10/11.
★★★★★★★★★★

If big hooks and thunderous drums are your thing, then Swagger is the album you’ve been waiting for.

Having already amassed a decent following on their solid first and second records, Scottish rockers Gun took things to an entirely new level this time out.

Swagger is jam-packed with anthems from start to finish, bursting at the seams with power chords and thumping drums, and evident of a band who had spent the previous two years on tour with the likes of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.

The standout track is a cover of Cameo’s 1986 hit Word Up.

It’s a song which has been covered countless times over the years, but Gun’s version is widely considered to be the definitive one, as it takes the already catchy original and turns it into a stomping rock song. The band landed an MTV Award for this track, and it catapulted them into the Top 10.

What’s perhaps most impressive about Swagger, though, is that although the band must have known they had a huge hit on their hands when they heard the final mix of this song, they didn’t rest on their laurels with the remaining material.

Cue; Don’t Say It’s Over.

Mark Rankin is in the best for of his career as he cruises through this song, his low register vocals acting as the perfect foil for Guiliano Gizzi’s Slash-tastic guitar work. It’s an absolute barnstormer of a track, which will surely go down as one of the best rock songs of the decade.

And it’s not alone.

The album closing combo of One Reason and Vicious Heart does a fantastic job of capturing the essence of big 90s radio rock – and while several other tracks throughout Swagger use a similar musical template to that of Don’t Say It’s Over (Seems Like I’m Losing You, Find My Way, Crying Over You), the riffs are more than strong enough and the choruses are definitely big enough that it actually works.

The production of Chris Sheldon also deserves a mention here.

Sheldon’s focus on Giuliano Gizzi’s hooks and Mark Kerr’s huge drums make the band sound bigger and more thumping than they ever had before (listening back to it in 2024, it still sounds loud!). It’s a real shame this would be the only collaboration between Gun and Sheldon, because his style suited them down to the ground.

If you’re a fan of Gun’s later work (e.g. Favourite Pleasures, Hombres) you’ll be interested to know that this LP is where Dante Gizzi’s backing vocals really start to come into the fold.

Gizzi provides a higher, raspier scale which works well in contrast to Rankin (e.g. Stand In Line, Something Worthwhile), and he would eventually take over lead vocal duties when Rankin departed in 1998 (indeed, there will be many Gun fans reading this who have only ever known the band with Gizzi).

But although they would go on to create some tremendous albums in their later years (particularly those which I’ve highlighted above), Swagger is largely considered to be the band’s best work. The material contained here shows that Gun weren’t just on tour with Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, they were in class, learning how to create stadium-sized rockers from some of the best in the business.

The end result is one the best rock albums of the 1990s.

Russ’ re-worked playlist:

Maybe it’s the autism in me, but I’ve always been good at re-working album playlists to create a superior listening experience. What can I say, Superman got laser eyes, and I got this! Here’s how you should listen to Gun: Swagger (1994) for maximum effectiveness:

1. Find My Way (3:19)
2. Word Up (4:20) ★
3. Don’t Say It’s Over (4:09) ★
4. Vicious Heart (4:02)
5. Seems Like I’m Losing You (3:45)
6. Stand In Line (4:01)
7. Crying Over You (4:34)
8. Something Worthwhile (4:17)
9. The Only One (4:38)
10. One Reason (4:13) ★

In summary:

Scottish rockers Gun deliver anthem after anthem on their third LP. They have perfected the big rock sound, and the end result is one of the best albums of the 1990s.

Swagger receives 10/11.
★★★★★★★★★★