The Saints are back with their 13th album and it is a great return to form. It is somewhat hard to believe that Chris Bailey has been singing for The Saints for over 30 years. The material on this disc sounds fresh and this CD should rank up there with the first few releases by the original line-up of The Saints. Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats/Live Aid) was quoted as saying that three bands altered the face of rock music in the 1970s: Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Saints. You can still hear the vitality and sense of urgency in The Saints music.

The band is now down to a three-piece with the departure of guitarist Marty Wilson-Piper but (as much as I was a fan of his work with The Church) Wilson-Piper's contribution isn't missed. Chris Bailey plays all guitars - I think he has been holding back over the years as the guitar work sounds great. Casper Wijnberg (bass) and Peter Wilkinson (drums) complete the band's sound and this disc is a solid piece of garage-punk. The band comes out of the gate hard and the first cut on the disc, "Drunk In Babylon", sets the tone for the rest of the disc. "Drunk as a lord in Babylon, Been pushing my luck all night long". This is raw guitar-rock that is pushed along by Bailey's distinctive snarl.

The band slows down a bit toward the middle of the disc with "Other Side of the World". While I would describe this song as a ballad, it isn't the typical radio-pap that has given a bad name to ballads. Among other things, Bailey's voice prevents any song from falling into the "whiny ballad" category. There are a couple strong power-pop songs on the disc ("So Close" and "Getting Away with Murder") and the final song, "War of Independence", is a moody and forlorn tune that is the perfect ending to the disc.

Here is a quote from the band's MySpace page about the recording process for Imperious Delirium. "We spent three weeks in a basement locked inside a Saintsworld bubble and emerged with forty odd minutes of music made entirely by the three of us (no outside influences involved), less is more, no fillers only killers."

There have been a number of times (and CDs) where I expected The Saints to break-out in the US. This is a great CD so perhaps this could be the one...

The band is playing two shows in the area at the end of this month:
October 30th - Maxwell's
October 31st - Club Midway

Links:
The Saints Website
The Saints MySpace page