This is the second offering from Detroit rockers Electric Six and after the release of their first album, Fire, back in 2003, they must have played every venue in the country twice over! I think the first album was a total masterpiece, it's one of those records where you think every song could be a single; it's that good!!
Now, two years after the release of Fire, Electric Six return to the fold with Senor Smoke. So many bands have had storming debut albums and promised so much, but seem to let themselves down by the second or third release, they seem to just lose that magic, or the expectancy is too high. As far as Senor Smoke goes this is not the case! Like I said, the first album was so good, how could this compete? Well I'm here to tell ya it does and in style!!
Rock n Roll Evacuation starts the proceedings off, the song itself is really well written and has a wicked pre-chorus... Mr President make a little money, Sending people you don't know to Iraq, Mr President I don't like you, You don't know how to rock!!! Classic eh!
Devil Nights, Bite Me and Jimmy Carter are all really strong songs that will instantly get you humming along with the catchy chorus. I have to state again, each of these songs is very well written. Then we get to track number #5,  Pleasant interlude 1. Dick Valentine tells us about him waking up on a floor somewhere feeling hungry. He decides to head off to Monty's Grill for a Utah burger with cheese, fries... only to find out the man behind the counter is not Monty but an Impostor!!
Awesome!!!
The next track is the dance/rock/techno fuelled number Dance Epidemic. I'm still singing this one away in my head! Future Boys has a very 80's Ska influence to it. The song that stands out for me personally is Be My Dark Angel, it's just a lyrically awesome song like every other track on this album. They even do a cover of the Queen classic Radio Ga Ga, which is a favourite at their live shows.
To sum this album up, the first release, Fire, was awesome; this second offering easily surpasses that, let's hope that this is just the beginning for Electric Six and that there will be many more albums released of this quality in the near future.