Close the shutters, lock the doors and hide the children! The Rumble Strips, Devon’s own indy band, which kickstarted its career in 2005 followed by its much-heralded 2007 debut album, ‘Girls and Weather’, has just launched its second CD. This is always the most dangerous time for any new band and regardless of what has been said or gone before, this is make or break time.

However, ‘Welcome To The Walk Alone’ is a genuine stormer and whereas comparisons were drawn with Dexys Midnight Runners for the band’s opener, this time frontman Charlie Waller’s slightly edgy vocalisations sound as though they have taken on a style perpetrated by Paul King when he fronted his eponymously-named pop band of the mid-1980s. The five-piece makes a great sound this time around, nicely balanced, possessing strong production values and with a raft of eleven new songs that provide shades of Morrissey and even Keane about their styling and shaping.

Undoubtedly, the influence of Owen Pallet, on loan from Arcade Fire, helps the band’s case but with the stringy backdrop, there can be only one key influence that is helping this band to make it to the big time. Produced by Mark Ronson, there is an all-encompassing drama and pizzazz, while the introduction of some spectacular musical fills enhance the final show to a potential ‘Wall of Sound’ that will deliver the maximum enjoyment in auditoria and on this summer’s various festival stages.

Charlie’s energetic delivery and the pacy guitars and drums provide a driving elegance to this follow-up that is sorely lacking in any number of new bands’ offerings. However, I get the feeling that The Rumble Strips is a band with its feet firmly on terra firma. Its earthy lyrics and apposite accompaniment succeed in painting the sort of musical imagery that we have been missing of late. Oh, it is not all pretty flowers and kitchen-sink drama but it is realistically based and definitely Brit-rock at its very finest. And, yeah, okay! The brass back-up still manages to sound like Dexys in all their pomp and circumstance, albeit tinged with a soupcon of Arcade Fire.