With eight original numbers and three covers, the TR5’s have been hard at work crafting a disc with their own unique sound. Part rock and roll, part pop (I’m hearing influences from the 1960s and indeed, from the 1980s as well!) there’s even a slight latin heat, though rest assured this is still, at it’s heart, a rock’n’roll record. The three covers on ‘A Triumphant Return’ are well chosen and range from a hard rockin’ version of Janis Martin’s 1956 hit ‘My Boy Elvis’ to an atmospheric rendering of the fab fours ‘Oh Darlin’ via the accentuated off-beat feel of Joe Meek’s ‘You Gotta Pick a Darlin’ that is sure to be a live dance floor filler. In fact pretty much any one of the numbers on this disc are gonna be a winner live and I feel fairly sure that the band have already road tested most of them! From the eight originals I gotta pick three darlin’s though. ‘Hypocrite’ with it’s oh-so-slinky rhumba feel and razor sharp backing vocals, is one; I like ‘Until the dance is over’ just for the sheer fun of the drum and guitar intro and that catchy chorus and, last but not least, ‘Please Yourself’, because it works so dang well with Rusty’s voice, the chords are cool, and the ‘You can please yourself’ call-and-response is just fab.

The record was produced and engineered by Graham Dominy and The TR5’s at Embassy Studios in Basingstoke and it sounds great. There’s a definite feeling that the songs have been put together with each musician contributing their ideas and this, along with with Rusty’s voice, brings a strong ‘band’ identity, helped in no small way by fine production that isn’t afraid to let the gritty guitars and rhythm section take up their space in the mix.

‘A Triumphant Return’ is a worthy successor to the Surrey band’s debut album ‘A Triumph’  ( It’s a car thing innit ) Let’s see where that two and half litre straight six takes them next!

Andy Brodie

Buy a copy from the band’s website here