Album Review: Reef ‘Revelation’

For the first time in 18 long years … Reef return with a new album!  

Their first album since 2000’s ‘Getaway’, it finds the band in fine form.  Their first album with new guitarist Jesse Wood (son of a certin Rolling Stone) it was recorded in Ireland with Producer George Drakoulias (The Black Crowes, Primal Scream, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers).

“We didn’t want to just make a good record, we wanted to make a great record,” says Reef vocalist Gary Stringer of ‘Revelation’.  “We were writing the songs for two and a half years, road-testing them when we were on tour. We’d play four or five new songs every night, really watching the crowd. If their eyes glazed over or they went to the bar, then we dropped those songs! But if a song engaged with them – a melody they can hook into, a guitar riff – then that was a real pointer for how we went about it. Hopefully that’s helped make the album is as strong as it is.”

Kicking off with the colossal guitar riff that is ‘Revelation’ (full of AC/DC vim and vigour), the album sees the band moving on from the indie-r feel of their earlier records, and moving into the world of blues rock.  And with frontman Gary Stringers vocals bigger, stronger and more, tracks like the ‘Don’t Go Changing Your Mind’, the Zepplin-inspired ‘Just Feel Love’ and rollocking ‘Ball & Chain’ contribute to a fantastic return. 

18 years on and while Reef in 2018 and a very different proposition, they’re sounding as vital as they ever have.