Enuff Z’Nuff has been putting out albums of solid power pop/rock since the late 1980s, and despite multiple line-up shifts and internal dramas, they always manage to conjure up something great on every album.
Enuff Z’Nuff – Finer Than Sin (Frontiers)
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Alex Eruptor
Perhaps best known in the USA for their MTV hits at the turn of the 1990s, Enuff Z’Nuff moved from major labels to the indie scene and slightly evolved their sound and image. Based on big hooks from the 1960s and 1970s pop and distinctly rock musicianship, they matched this with a larger-than-life and sometimes even slightly cartoonish look.
An early single, New Thing, predicted the sort of thing that Oasis would later have more commercial success with, although the Gallagher brothers channelled it through a more mainstream filter.
The current line-up is led by founder member and mainstay Chip Z’Nuff, bassist and these days also lead singer, who has also been a touring member of The Quireboys (London Quireboys in the USA) and in the solo band of ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler.
The new album, Finer Than Sin, delivers the melodic power-pop sound you would hope for from an Enuff Z’Nuff release and the hedonistic lyrical themes that long-term fans will expect.
The first song, Sound Check, is an instrumental entrée but the first song proper, Catastrophe, and the next, Steal The Light, are both vintage Z’Nuff.
The hits keep coming, each with strong melodies that hit the spot, and lyrical observations on sinful living, keeping with the album’s title. Intoxicated and Hurricane slow things down a bit, while Trampoline is a T-Rex-ish glam rock boogie.
Curiously there is an unfortunately timed cover version of Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen that seems out of place before one last instrumental Reprise that picks up where the opener Sound Check left off, which is a cool way to bookend the album.
Ten songs in 41 minutes and 16 seconds, and it’s a punchy album that fans will enjoy.
