Band Of Skulls - Death By Diamonds And Pearls

Let’s get it out of the way quickly, this song sounds just like The White Stripes. Between the lumbering guitar riffs, the pounding, cymbal-heavy drums, the high-pitched vocals and the skittering, squealing guitar solo, there’s really nothing in this song that doesn’t sound like something Jack and Meg could have come up with on ‘White Blood Cells’.

But luckily for Southampton-based three-piece Band of Skulls, imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and ‘Death By Diamonds And Pearls’ only serves to remind us how good blues-inflected garage rock from Detroit can sound. You can’t help but move with these kinds of staccato riffs and the simple lyrics mean that the song will be stuck in your head for days. The effect is one of a detached cool, every note seems well placed to work its way into your head, just like a pop song but much, much better. Frankly, the only negative point that can be drawn (although it is a big one) is that the song’s completely unoriginal. But then again, who cares, weren’t the Whites always throwbacks anyway?