The Datsuns: Outta Sight/ Outta Mind

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

Herald rating: * *

The Datsuns wrote themselves into Kiwi rock history by taking themselves straight to the Big Wide World rather than slogging away at home. Two years after their raucously entertaining self-titled first album comes the follow-up, which unlike the DIY debut, was recorded under the guidance of a producer, former Led Zeppelin bassist-keyboardist, John Paul Jones, in an English country-manor studio.

It sounds like he's beefed up the guitar quartet's sonic palette a little, his organ playing on three tracks confirming the earlier suspicions that the band prize those old Deep Purple albums rather too highly. But while there's plenty of further evidence that they are a thrilling live band, the 12 tracks just seem to blast on by with very little taking hold. They seemed funnier and more fired up first time round with their frenetic teenage take on dinosaur rock; here they seem to be embracing the idea all too seriously.

It's true that singer Dolf de Datsun's screeching about those gals who make his rock star life just that little bit more interesting can raise a smile on the likes of Girl's Best Friend (no relation to the similarly named Cars song), but even he gets a little lost in all that pedestrian twin-lead riffery and there's just not much that grabs in the song department. Unfortunately, Outta Sight/ Outta Mind suggests outta ideas too.

(Hellsquad/Shock)