Northern Irish garage/blues duo The Bonnevilles – best known for their blistering live shows and smart soulful songwriting – follow-up their killer 2016 release Arrow Pierce My Heart with Dirty Photographs. The new album is much like the band’s previous releases only with a slightly more upbeat sound of Andrew McGibbon, Jr.’s powerful yet grungy guitar riffs and the walloping percussion of bandmate Chris McMullan. McGibbon captures the essence well when he says, “There’s an emotion of positivity on these songs, rather than the usual tales of woe. Most of the tracks are upbeat, or have a positive message, a message of love or even just plain old fashioned sex. I know others have written a world of songs about those things but we haven’t, so we thought it was our time to jump in.” Album highlights include: the scorching opening title-track “Dirty Photographs”; the soulful “Don’t Curse the Dark”; the unrelenting “Long Runs the Fox”; the fuzzed out “The Poachers Pocket”; the gritty rocker “The Good Bastards”; and the moody “The Rebels Shrug.” Dirty Photographs is an excellent album and shows the duo pushing their sound in new direction while still remaining familiar at the same time. – Written by JFelton
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