Loudlife's press release and artist bio mentions a "Soundgarden meets Led Zeppelin" sound. As a huge fan of both, I couldn't let such bold claims go untested. After several listens to their self-titled debut album I'd say it's an accurate claim, but that Loudlife aren't yet at the lofty heights of the bands they clearly draw their inspiration from.

Loudlife are fronted by Lorraine Ferro; the aforementioned bio suggests that she's been 'round the block a few times - in the nicest possible way - but I've genuinely never heard of her. This triggered a number of alarm bells.

Similarly, the scattering of names like Steve Tyler, Joe Perry, Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell throughout the band's description didn't do much for my confidence levels. I feared that Loudlife would be a terrible wannabe rock record; devoid of any merit, a dreary sound-alike which I'd struggle to listen to once and never go back to. It's a very harsh judgement to make when you've never even heard the record, but as the old saying goes, "you should never judge a rock band by its bio". I'd give the album a fair shake.

My fears were, for the most part, unfounded: Loudlife is actually a very good album. Far, far better than I ever expected it to be, and perhaps better than it deserves to be. As my opening paragraph suggested, this band isn't in the same league as such legends as Led Zeppelin and Soundgarden, and the comparison does them no favours. All those bold claims on their Myspace page do exactly what they're there to do: hook in potential listeners by dangling their musical heroes as bait. But it's a double edged sword: setting an expectation that they can never truly live up to.

Ferro is a great vocalist. There's no doubt about that. She's powerful, capable, and doesn't sound like a demonic harpy. She switches styles a few times during the album, and as a result reminds me of any number of people. I can't put my finger on precisely who I think she sounds like, but here's a few names: Melissa Etheridge, Sass Jordan, Emmy Lou Harris, Chris Cornell, Pink, and Robert Plant. It's an impressive list isn't it? Chances are anyone with more than a passing interest in any of those artists is going to want to have a listen to Loudlife. So now I'm just as guilty as whoever wrote that bio I mentioned earlier.

Musically the album's perfectly acceptable too. Producer Teddy Kumpel does a good job, and the whole thing sounds slick and polished. Geoff Sobel does a good job on guitar and his riffs are always pleasing. That nasty bio compares him to Jimmy Page, which is stretching things a bit, so we've got that paradox again: he's talented, and performs well on the album, but your expectations have been set at such a high level that you can't help - on the first few listens - to feel a bit let down.