The Films

From Charleston, South Carolina, The Films take the same basic rock’n’roll essence The Strokes used to reboot rock’n’roll at the turn of the century and reinvent it with the added power of stoner rock. All of which is a grand claim to make on paper, trickier to pull off when you’re setting yourself shoulder to shoulder with the modern greats. ‘Don’t Dance Rattlesnake’ pulls it off most of the time, casting The Films as sandblasted outlaws armed with razor-sharp pop hooks. What saves them from the ‘just another band’ pile is the range of what they do with their primitive tools, from the high-octane ‘Belt Loops’ all the way down to the sublime ‘Bodybag’, which marks out a possible future for them as noble country rockers, should the fancy ever take them.

Dan Martin

7 out of 10