Wolfmother: Cosmic Egg (Universal)

To be honest I rarely watch music television, but the other night I caught about 30 seconds of these Australian rockers and was hooked: they seemed to be nothing especially new but were genuinely exciting. I heard a bit of early Black Sabbath, some terrific guitar sounds of the kind that used to be common in the late Sixties, a swag of Seventies pre-stadium rock (Black Oak Arkansas) and whole lot more.

It is even more rare that I would contact a record company asking for an album that is clearly metal rock'n'roll (I have hundreds of albums like that, what more could these guys add?) but I did and (almost) haven't regretted it.

This is bombastic, takes itself not too seriously, knows its place (be loud, and sing like a man clinging on by his fingernails) and toss in a few throat searing ballads atop the heavy machinery of guitars.

Of course at 72 minutes it is twice as long as it needs to be and the prodcution sheen of Alan Moulder might have just squeezed some rawness out of their performances.

But taken in small doses -- maybe just on television? -- there is some unashamedly retro-fun about a band that still believes that big hair, big riffs, a Led Zeppelin fixation and over-reaching are actually of value in this wicked world.

More power, although less music on Cosmic Egg, to them I say.