Album Review: The Love Junkies - Maybelene

Perth threesome The Love Junkies waste little time declaring their musical statement. Maybelene, their first full-length, kicks into high gear with ballsy and fun rocker Heads Down lighting up the record from the word go. Power chords, punchy vibes and high-octane energy ooze out of every beat and, pleasantly, it gets better from there. Early album highlight and essential single Oxymoron brings a dirty and fuzzy production layer to what is a damn fine rock tune that, honestly, could pass for a loose White Stripes cut.

It's not all sunshine and swagger though; when the band dip into slower, ballad-style tunes like Hurt You and Spinning, it doesn't really do much to hide the fact that their strengths lie in dirty and fast rock'n'roll. Things end on great notes though, with crunchy and groove-driven Black Sheep Blues and acoustic Ashtray showing yet more influences the band channel into their own sound.

Maybelene never outstays its welcome. Clocking in just under 40 minutes, nothing ever sits long enough to become complacent, and this idea exists in the music as well. Each song touches on a handful of rock'n'roll tropes, never remaining still. It speaks to the talent of these young lads that the result isn't so much schizophrenic as it is exciting. This album hardly pushes barriers and the group might as well wear their post-2000s rock influences on their sleeves, but the result is fun enough to largely ignore these internal complaints. Maybelene will, if we're lucky, be the album we look back on as being a strong, even if derivative, start to a great career.