11 tracks · 49 min
With "Razamanaz" slinging the Dunfermline's finest up where they belonged, there really wasn't time, and sense, to slow down. Tour wheels set in perpetual motion, creative juices were in constant flow, too, so the quartet's fourth album crystallized their ideas even more solidly to render "Loud 'n' Proud" not simply a follow-up but a sequel to their previous LP. Again it starts with a smash, "Go Down Fighting", to blow off any barrier there could be, yet this time the chugging riff is oiled with Manny Charlton's slide and sags acoustically in fine style on the verses to let Dan McCafferty deliver his silvery rap for adrenalin to kick in measured doses, as it does in another intent-clearing number, the wah-wah-awashed "Freewheeler" that harks back to the '60s rhythm-and-blues while adding a nice weight to its meandering trajectory and taking it spaceward guitar-wise. After that, the energy level never lets down, the tension growing even more on less speedy numbers such as the closer, the drone-filled, heavy metal take on Dylan's grim "The Ballad Of Hollis Brown", and one of the NAZ's most glorious covers, Joni Mitchell's "This Flight Tonight" that the Scots make their own by hangin…
