Dinosaur Pile-Up – Eleven Eleven

You needn’t be a paleontologist to suss Dinosaur Pile-Up’s sonic ancestry. Their third outing – another solid offering of crisp power-chord rock that’s rowdy enough for Kerrang! magazine but still mainstream radio friendly – is as much a work of Dave Grohl fan fiction as their previous efforts, but with some welcome developments. While ever the angsty loner on record, frontman Matt Bigland is joined by a live band for the first time on Eleven Eleven and the extra manpower makes for a heftier, more dynamic sound.

Anxiety Trip is rollercoaster of slow-tease build-ups and earthquake riffs ignited with a whisper, its playful theatrics a natural fit for Bigland’s melodramatic lyrics. He’s strengthened as a songwriter too and isn’t ashamed to flaunt his new-found power pop leanings. Forgot Motörhead; the pristine harmonised chorus on Might as Well sounds more like early Fountains of Wayne, and that’s no bad thing. [Andrew Gordon]