The Struts

When I discovered The Struts on YouTube I did a double take. Not only was the singer Luke Spiller dressed, moving, and sounding like a young Freddie Mercury the song had a distinctly Queen vibe. That song was, “Could Have Been Me”. From that single I found my way to “Kiss This”, and my absolute favorite, “Put Your Money on Me”. I followed the band, fascinated with this vocalist who could have been Freddie Mercury and Joan Jett’s love child. I knew that The Struts were a fresh and edgy version of a “boy band” in some ways, and in others, they came across as seasoned artists doing their own thing. This was approximately 2015, and I was still late to the party, The Struts had already been together for about six years and had one full-length album out titled, Everybody Wants. When I found out they were going to release another album I was excited for them, and couldn’t wait to get it. Released in 2018, Young & Dangerous seemed to be a hit. All kinds of people who had never heard of the band were suddenly all about Mr. Spiller and his band mates. There’s nothing better than someone saying, “Oh you’ve got to hear this new song!” and being able to reply with, “Yeah, I heard it about four years ago, it’s on my playlist along with everything else by them.”

Depending on what generation you’re a part of, the definition of Rock music can change drastically, with old-timers typically thinking of crooners from the The Beatles & Beach Boys period whilst today’s youngsters might consider something like the Pop-centric Imagine Dragons or even the charming Hip Hop burnout Post Malone edgy enough to be considered Rock, but the true grit of this genre hasn’t really reared its head since the mid-noughties before Emo & Indie music took the world by storm, the most notable contributors from that era being Jet & Wolfmother – Nearly a decade & a half later, were finally starting to see a resurgence of true Rock’N’Roll tendencies thanks to groups like The Struts who’re stripping the genre down to its bare necessities & giving it an unexpectedly raunchy spank for good luck.