oly smoke – it’s time to rock out. The traditionally ‘difficult’ sophomore album hangs like a spectre over many bands. You had ages to hone your perfect debut, and what seems like moments to craft its successor. But our black-clad stone cold foxes emerge from a dingy east London shoebox studio – leaving the bloodied carcass of debut ‘BRMC’ behind – with the triumphant roar of Take Them On, On Your Own. Like the gawky teen-ager who comes back from the summer vacation a fully formed man; this offering is muscular, mature – and ready for action.

If the last one was all about shoe gazing awkward shyness, this is all about snake-hipped swagger. Their previously pining laments to women are replaced by a “get your coat love - you’ve pulled” bravado. And with their newly found confidence comes an easy shedding of their obvious influences. If you were hoping for more Jesus and Mary Chain redux, you better keep moving. Instead what we have here is knee-deep in dirty blues-based bar rock with hooks thick enough to hang sides of beef on.

Lyrically, it still remains somewhat unchallenging – but the music! Yes! Yes! Yes! The music is the main element. Peter Hayes’s guitar reverb curls round your thighs, wraps round your chest and pulls tighter and harder than the best lover you’ve ever been lucky enough to bed. And while Nick Jago’s drumming would benefit from more practice on fills and less on banging away at the high-hat, it still provides the purring engine that drives this beautiful machine. It all starts in hammering style with 'Stop' and refuse to let up. Yes, “Six Barrel Shotgun” rehashes the hook from breakthrough track “Punk Song” but who the hell cares when the hook is this good? Even when they take it down a notch on “Shade of Blue”, its hypnotic bass plunk morphing into arced guitar wails, or the lush acoustic balladry on “And I’m Aching”, our trio can’t put an effect or a chord wrong. Finishing off with the shimmering, glittering hollowed out feeling “Heart + Soul”£ - which kinda sounds like “Love Will Tear Us Apart” if Ian Curtis rocked instead of reeled.

At the end of the day, it’s hard to reason out why this works so well. It’s neither novel nor that innovative. It’s just rock music. And maybe that’s it. Its straightforward, balls-to-the-walls coming-right-at-ya sound is so easy to digest, especially in this current culture of retro style over substance half-wits. But these guys are simply pure of heart and loud of amp. Worship them here. Now.