The Bronx - Bronx VI

When this first new album in four years from The Bronx was announced back in March, guitarist Joby Ford claimed that “from day one, we really decided that we wanted to make a record that went in different directions and places.” Perhaps it felt that way to the Los Angeles veterans as they pieced together ‘Bronx VI’ at Joe Baressi’s House of Compression studio in Pasadena, but what they’ve produced sounds like classic Bronx, and certainly not much of a deviation from the punk rock blueprint that has made them one of the genre’s most consistent performers over the past couple of decades. The usual freewheeling riffery is very much in evidence, particularly on opener and lead single ‘White Shadow’ and the incendiary ‘Jack of All Trades’, while frontman Matt Caughthran is on typically boisterous form, turning in a slew of ferocious vocal performances as well as some pretty changeable lyricism, incisive one minute (‘Superbloom’) and asinine the next (‘Mexican Summer’). There are occasional signs of stylistic deviation - closer ‘Participation Trophy’ leans closer into poppy hooks than we’re used to hearing on past Bronx records, and the same can be said of ‘Watering the Well’ - but in the main, this is the same band we’ve long known - fast, furious and, above all, fun. Long-time followers will not be disappointed, but new converts are likely to be few in number.