So a second bite of the cherry for the transatlantic supergroup Black Country Communion. Another chance for Glen Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian to impress us with a slice of nostalgic seventies-style rock. It’s a shame then that just like the first record this is something of a failure despite the occsional outstanding track.

And that failure is down to exactly the same factors as that blighted the original album; Kevin Shirley's muddy production and Joe Bonamassa's struggle to really rock out. Firstly let's deal with the production. Kevin Shirley portfolio is impressive, he’s worked with many of the biggest names in rock - including knob twiddling duties on the last four Iron Maiden records. So you'd hope for better here. In recent times his mixes have lacked some top end sparkle - see Maiden’s Final Frontier for that - and the first Black Country Communion album suffered terribly from this. This second BCC album isn’t as bad but there’s still a lack of top-end.

More importantly there’s a real lack of power in the recording of Joe Bonamassa’s rhythm guitar work. This is a rock record, one expects the guitars to rock. But power chords are tame and buried in the mix. What we want from this kind of record is grinding Marshall powerchords, not guitar stabs that sound embarrassed to be there. My guess is that this is Shirley's attempt at a lower-fidelity 1970s sound. But compared to Deep Purple's Machine Head it really is tame work. I wouldn't have expected Jimmy Page or Martin Birch to be happy with this kind of sound even in 1972. This kind of music can be recorded so much better - you only have to listen to Andy Taylor’s (yes the one from Duran Duran) production for Thunder, now that’s how you record bluesy rock with power and finesse. Instead Shirley gives us a mix that lacks separation between the instruments and leaves Jason Bonham too far in the background and everyone else fighting over the same sonic space.

Now we move onto the guitar playing itself. Joe Bonamassa is a great blues guitarist. His albums - the poor Black Rock aside - really have been thrilling rides. His playing on these is soulful and exciting and he's a player well known for getting a beautiful tone out of his equipment. So what's gone wrong here?

Well the irony is - given many blues purists believe he brings too much rock to his blues records - that Joe struggles as a rock guitarist. His tone is too blues, too lacking in gain and bite and doesn't feel dangerous. He's also suffering from usually being the star - and overplays rhythm parts. What many of these songs need is epic ringing powerchords, the sort of thing even the egomaniac Richie Blackmore drenched Deep Purple records in. All too often Joe plays single note bass lines on the top guitar string - diluting Hughes' bass playing and sounding too busy and not rocking enough.

I know it sounds like nitpicking, but this boingy boingy approach to verse guitar playing from Joe Bonamassa is what really spoiled the first Black Country Communion album for me. It just doesn't work as effective rock guitar at all and is distracting when one is trying to listen to Glen Hughes powerful vocals. If there's any positive spin on this it's that there aren't as many songs as the first album that suffer from this and there are times Joe backs off and plays some chords instead, but all too often they are lost in the poor mix, partly down to the tame guitar tone, partly a fault of the production. Later in the album Joe does show he's a great rock guitarist when he stops trying so hard to rock and returns to his high-octane blues approach. He's an exceptional talent, and sometimes I think his schedule is burning him out. Take a break Joe, before it breaks you.

So what of the songs themselves? Better this time around, but you’d be forgiven for giving up on the record if you only heard the first few. Glenn Hughes comes in all guns blazing with his vocals and it’s only when he calms down later in the album that we hear him at his best. He doesn’t need to shout and once he does calm down that awesome voice can be heard.

The album opens with The Outsider, which commits all the sins I’ve detailed above. Glenn shouts, the production muddies everything together, Joe plays boingy boingy guitar and some dreadful power chords and it all seems a mess. Things come together later in the song with some brilliant Deep Purple style interplay between Derek Sherinian’s keyboard and Joe’s lead guitar. But overall I’m not impressed. Man in the Middle follows and is more of the same. Joe goes for a heavier riffing tone but it still doesn’t work. Glenn’s still shouting and the vocal melody doesn’t work.

Track three is The Battle for Hadrian’s Wall. This is a song written and sung by Joe and is an attempt at the classic rock historical epic. It fails very badly. The acoustic beginning sounds more like the Allman Brothers’ Jessica than a Celtic folk song, and the track meanders and doesn’t go anywhere. You expect it to build to something powerful but it just goes round in lame acoustic circles. It’s all foreplay and no shag.

Track four is where we see signs that the band may get it together. Save Me is a full-on Led Zeppelin homage. There’s a fantastic chord Joe plays in the verse that’s right out of Jimmy Page’s trickbag. And while like many songs on the album the verses are better than the choruses Save Me does build nicely to a memorable refrain. And then... oh dear. Following the chorus is a decending eastern style riff that sounds like the awful LedZep wannabees parodied in Gary Moore’s satirical Led Clones. It’s a naff attempt at a Kashmir style melody that smells of ripe cheese.

Track five Smokestack Woman is where the album finally starts getting good. There’s more space in the music as Joe and Glenn aren’t just playing the same riff. Glenn’s bass now works as a great counterpoint to Joe’s riffing. It’s a basic blues rock stomp, but much better than the tracks that preceded it. The next song is Faithless, a slower tempo number that captures some of Zeppelin’s vibe without seeming like a cheesy ripoff. Again the success is down to Glenn and Joe playing separate parts.

Ordinary Son is another of Joe’s songs. A gentle number about a father son relationship. It’s more reminiscent of his solo work, but that’s no bad thing. The track builds nicely to a powerful conclusion. Track eight I Can See Your Spirit is a bit of a step back to Glenn shouting over Joe playing Boingy Boingy nonsense again, which is a shame. However Derek Sherinian’s keyboard playing is excellent on this song.

Now we head into the last three songs and they are bloody great. Little Secret is unashamedly a homage to Gary Moore, and Joe really nails the great man’s style. Beautiful guitar work here. And Glenn’s vocals are much more understated and actually more powerful on these three tracks. Little Secret is a beautiful song with the whole band flexing their muscles.

Crossfire, the penultimate track, is rather groovy too. A Steve Rothery style chorused guitar gives way to an excellent riff. The main verse riff actually sounds like something from Joe Satriani’s Time Machine period. The song features a great pre-chorus harmony vocal and the rest of the song benefits from some powerful drumming, an incendiary guitar solo from Joe and some lovely Genesis/early Marillion like keyboard playing from Derek.

Black Country Communion saved the best until last. Cold is just downright brilliant. A haunting combination of guitar and keyboards leads us in. I love the slow bass and guitar work in the verses. And this is Glenn’s best vocal performance on the album, echoing the haunting guitar in tone. But his voice builds with power as the song goes on. We build to a great solo from Joe before we return to the haunting refrains that began the song.

The last three songs make me really wonder about BCC. While much of the band’s work sounds like an attempt to ape well known bands of the seventies - an attempt that really doesn’t come off - the last three songs seem to define the actual BCC sound. These are the kinds of songs and compositions the boys need to concentrate on instead of the shouty boingy nonsense that blights the first half of the album.

Based on this new record there’s definitely life in Black Country Communion, but the band needs to ditch the muddy production in favour of a modern approach, concentrate the songwriting on their strengths and stop trying too hard to rock out. Rocking comes naturally when the songs work, as they last three do. I’d say there are enough good songs on the record to make it worth some of your time, especially in the second half, but four great musicians and a big name producer could and should do better.

Reviewed by Harry Neary

Black Country Communion 2 is out now and is available from Amazon.