Hailing from Norway, The Golden Leaves are a pretty straight forward rock band.  Rock covers a lot of bases, but so does this quintet – leaning into more alternative territory, but also delivering catchy tunes reminiscent of Arctic Monkeys at times.

From the opening bars of Insomnia, to the closing notes of Dear Soldier, the band comprised of David Nikolaisen, Christian Anton Sundet, Javier Campos, Torleiv Berge and Arthur Will, deliver swirling melodies, catchy hooks, bombastic rhythms, and great vocals that tie it all together.

Crisp production really helps to bolster the bands easily accessible sound, particularly on a catchy and upbeat number like Rebel, or Dancing.

On a track like Overexposed, they give us a bouncy blues infused track, and show a diversity that helps to keep this debut album interesting and easy to listen to.

Lemon shows that they are fully capable of combining different styles into one cohesive track too – big hard rock riffs mesh with poppier bursts and catchy vocals.

The Golden Leaves clearly place no restrictions on where their music can go, they just roll with it, and go in any direction that takes their fancy at the time.  The whole album come together well, and I recommend it to fans of all rock genres.

7/10

Shayne McGowan.