Having already had the chance to experience Light Me Up under my pen earlier in the year, a full album from Ratinoff was something I have been looking forward to. That initial sonic meeting alerted me to his ability to take everything good about pop – addictiveness, groove, fun – and everything great about rock music – drive, edge, energy and blend them perfectly.
And if Light Me Up was good, then Let It Out, by it having ten tracks must be 10 times as good, right? Wrong, it’s an album that is much more the sum of its parts and so is 20, 30…50 times better than you might have been expecting.
The opening salvo, Another Day is a driving piece of pop-rock, deftly dressed in cool guitar licks and a beat so hot that it melts its rock urges and turns them into more furious dances grooves, and Honey has a real old-school r&b groove which is slowly subverted by dance-pop electronics as incendiary guitars slash and tear its sonic fabric.
There are epic, sky-searing ballads in the form of Better, dirty disco tunes such as Hot As Hell and when he just wants to get back to basics and rock out, he does, with the suitably titled I Just Wanna Rock.
It’s an album that is rock but with the addiction and melody cranked up to eleven. It is also a pop record but one driven by gnarly riffs and attitude. It’s smart and it’s sassy. It’s also often a dance record, not through playing any of the same games that the clubland creators do but because its beats and grooves are just so damned infectious and have no need to compromise. It’s a record that proves that you can be both big and clever!
Pick up a copy of the album through all the usual channels on 17th September
