The follow-up album to the much praised Bill Mallonee and Buddy Miller-produced Audible Sigh finds Vigilantes Of Love shifting direction a few degrees pop-ward and Buddy Miller’s name also being dropped from the title.

The previous album had that Americana feel that one would expect from a project involving the excellent Mr Miller whereas this time out Bill Mallonee and his cohorts go further back to the British Invasion beat music that influenced them growing up. The Beatles, Kinks and Who, as well as contemporaries like the Byrds, Dylan and early REM, plus lesser known names like The Bongos and the DB’s, all are factored into the mix here.

But that doesn’t mean the album is merely a well-rehearsed tribute act. Mallonee’s writing and the band’s playing are strong enough in their own right to shrug off any fear of simple mimicry, in the process giving the album a sound and energy that is very much of this time and place.

Right from the opening ‘You Know That’ you are hit between the eyes with concisely melodic harmonic pop-rock that is memorable and refreshingly direct. There are also more reflective songs like ‘Compass’ that are delivered with a lighter but equally effective touch.

Producers Mallonee and Tom Lewis have done a fine job, balancing the wordy and intense lyrics against a solid beat bedrock. And really that is the key; forget pop, this is beat music, the kind of melodic but tough rock that flourished in the mid-’60s before the drugs totally took over.