There are times when you think that your ears have entered a time warp and got transported back to New York in the nineties and that's exactly how "Heaven's Alright" by Paramount Styles hit me. It's not that retro is the name of the game here but this album just has the feel of that time.
It's hard not to think of the likes of Lou Reed when you listen to "Steal Your Life". Over a rolling piano, Scott McCloud's vocals draw deeply on the laconic cigarettes smoked so often by the aforementioned Mr Reed. Even the lyrically dubious – it's an unfortunate obsession thing – "The Girls of Prague" sounds like it actually takes place in a guitar powered suburb of New York. Equally in reflective moments such as in "Stay Alive" it is the words of a world weary big city songsmith that we hear.
Whilst perhaps staying in downbeat territory a touch too long, Paramount Styles have an album here that runs in a straight line to redemption land.