In summary:
Gun complete their sensational comeback to the top table of rock music with Favourite Pleasures, an album jam-packed with some of the finest riffs and anthems they have ever recorded. Outstanding.
Favourite Pleasures receives 9/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Few could have predicted this, could they?
Upon re-forming in 2009, Scottish rockers Gun set about releasing a string of good albums throughout the 2010s, which has now culminated in possibly the best album of their career; Favourite Pleasures.
Seriously, it’s that good.
After toying with a more poppy sound on their previous two efforts (particularly 2015’s Frantic), this album sees Gun return to their traditional hard rock sound, with killer riffs and thundering drums galore. Many of the tracks here can rival anything from the band’s first run of albums during the 1990s, such as the driving She Knows, or the U2-esque (when U2 were good, that is) Tragic Heroes, and it’s an absolute classic from start to finish.
Opener She Knows sets the marker for what’s to come. It’s jangly riff is under-pinned by a no-nonsense beat from Paul McManus, before Dante Gizzi delivers the kind of vocal performance which makes you completely forget that he wasn’t always the frontman of this band.
The lyrical content of this track is also interesting, with Gizzi telling the story of when he believed he’d met the woman of his dreams during a tour in the early 1990s, only to find out that she’s racist as fuck when he asks her to dance to Prince’s When Doves Cry and she replies, “Oh, I don’t dance to (yep, that word) music.” Yikes (“I’m colour blind / But your colour’s caught in two”).
And this is the first track, folks. THE FIRST TRACK!
It’s quickly followed up by Here’s Where I Am, where the Glaswegian rocker delivers stinging lines about a recently failed relationship (“You’ve tried to blame me for the things you’ve done / Your guilty conscience got you on the run / The dirty secrets that you tried to hide / A love affair with Mr. Third Time Lucky”). A solid beat reminiscent of Status Quo pounds away in the background as Gizzi passionately repeats the mantra “I’ll never go back / I’ll never go back / I’ll never go back”.
There are several highlights like this scattered throughout what feels like a very personal album.
Title track Favourite Pleasures is the catchiest song on the album, Dante Gizzi’s raspy vocals seemlessly bending around his brother’s memorable guitar hooks, before heading into Take Me Down, a dark and twisted rocker which captures Gun at their absolute peak. It can’t have been a nice experience to come home and catch your partner cheating while your kids sleep in the adjacent room, and this track tells the true story of how said discovery triggered a fit of rage which resulted in the cheating partner being bashed over the head with an empty bottle of wine, before the remainder of the now broken bottle was then thumped into the unwanted guest’s rectum, and it’s told from the haunting perspective of sitting in quiet despair as time stands still waiting for the police to arrive (“I’m shaking with anger / I can’t believe the things I’ve done”).
There’s more great work elsewhere in the album, too, including the devilish melody of Black Heart, the hopeful hopelessness of Without You In My Life (in which Gizzi sings about the prospect of his 17-year old daughter leaving home), and the radio-bursting riff for Tragic Heroes, which was amazingly cobbled together by combining several unused demos from their previous album, into what must go down as one of the strongest tracks of Gun’s career.
As the album draws to a close with The Boy Who Fooled The World, the frontman reminisces about listening to rock radio as a child with his fingers poised over the play and record buttons ready to capture the latest kick-ass songs. It’s a very relatable track, and the stripped back approach is a fitting way to cap off an exhilarating album.
That’s not to say Favourite Pleasures is 100% perfect, of course.
The Bowie tribute Silent Lovers largely falls flat, and the chugging chorus of Go To Hell manages to kill the momentum of the rest of the song. However, I’m nit-picking here. The deluxe version of the LP also comes with three bonus tracks (20 Storeys, Come Undone, and a cover of You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party). The two original songs are strong enough to have been added to the main album, and both feature some great lyrics and guitar work.
All in all, it’s safe to say that Favourite Pleasures is the sound of a band who have re-gained their finest form. I was absolutely chuffed to see that it helped Gun to land their first Top 20 album since 1994’s Swagger, but perhaps the biggest praise I can give it here, is to say that one of the lines in the album closer (“There’s something about a song that gets in your head / You can hear it just once and then it’s hard to forget”) is a feat which Gun have managed to achieve on several of the tracks on Favourite Pleasures.
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: Favourite Pleasures (2017) for maximum effectiveness:
- She Knows (3:23)
- Here’s Where I Am (3:40)
- Favourite Pleasures (3:24)
- Take Me Down (3:50)
- Black Heart (4:12)
- Tragic Heroes (3:36)
- Without You In My Life (3:41)
- Come Undone (3:46)
- Go To Hell (3:00)
- Silent Lovers (3:35)
- 20 Storeys (4:11)
- The Boy Who Fooled The World (5:19)
In summary:
Gun complete their sensational comeback to the top table of rock music with Favourite Pleasures, an album jam-packed with some of the finest riffs and anthems they have ever recorded. Outstanding.
Favourite Pleasures receives 9/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
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