New York City-based rockers the London Souls have just released their second album — and it’s a winner.

Here Come the Girls is stocked from top to bottom with soulful, melodic, funky and dirty rock and roll … you know, the good stuff!

So who are the London Souls? Glad you asked. They are singer/guitarist Tash Neal, drummer Chris St. Hilaire and bassist Stu Mahan. They released their (now out-of-print) debut in 2011 and have kept a relatively low profile since then, due in no small part to a serious hit and run accident suffered by Neal.

The London Souls’ sound mixes up traditional influences of hard driving rock, soul and pop. Instead of being a mere retread of tried and true angles, though, Here Come the Girls sounds surprisingly fresh thanks to the stripped down production that lives and breathes throughout the record.

For every Zeppelin-inspired guitar riff, there’s a nod to the Beatles‘ melodic sense, and for every soul-drenched groove, there’s a Byrds-ian harmony that creeps in. In some ways, what they are pulling together here is not miles apart from what Lenny Kravitz was doing some 20-plus years ago. They take their visions of the past and replant them in a current environment, though the songs never sound forced or overtly “retro.”

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