One Sock Missing

EVERY ONCE in a while you hear a song that you want to hear forever.

I've played 'Just Passing Out' twenty times in a row and I'll play it twenty more and want to play it twenty more. It begins with a slow, measured bass riff. A guitar enters, gently picking its way through. Then the bass drum thuds in with a funeral rhythm. The voice lifts itself with a tired melancholy. But underneath this melancholy you sense a search for a time of innocence. Something has been lost.

"I'm throwing shapes/Safest shapes can get now/I pull the drapes/So nothing keeps us shadow bound/It doesn't matter what you want… I guess I swallowed/Something hallow… If I could just keep from passing out/Maybe I could figure it out." The music builds as the voice stretches to find the drape and pull it away and let in the light. Then the drums collapse and it all fades away, disappointed.

The Memphis-based Grifters play a type of rock 'n' roll that is some distant white cousin of the Blues and R&B. There are hints of time spent listening to The Rolling Stones and The Stooges. The Grifters are lazy, sloppy musicians in the very best sense of the words. They don't seem to give a fuck. 'Bummer' is recorded so that it crackles through the speakers with dirty feedback. It rocks the socks off while giving the impression that it's all an accident. '#1' is short, melancholy and catchy. 'Tupelo Moan' is accomplished R&B, while 'Corolla Hoist' is a respectable relation to 'Just Passing Out'.

There's plenty that's forgettable on this album; 'Shark', 'Teenage Jesus', ''Side' and 'Sain' being some of them. However, for 'Just Passing Out' alone, One Sock Missing looks like it'll be among my albums of the year.

• Gerry McGovern