Black Rebel Motorcycle Club remain frustrating underachievers on the rock landscape.

The black-clad three-piece's blistering self-titled 2001 debut, which spawned such great tracks as Love Burns, should have set them on the road to world domination. But then the noise and clatter of its follow-up, Take Them On, On Your Own, failed to deliver one memorable song, and drummer Nick Jago walked out after too many tours, tensions and excesses.

Peter Hayes and Robert Been regrouped to great effect for the quieter, stripped-down Howl, which later hastened the return of Jago.

So now, their problems and differences behind them, BRMC have strapped on their loudest guitars for another proper assault on the rock charts with Baby 81. It is much more promising, not only melding their rootsy folk and psychedelic fuzz-rock, but also daring to step out of their comfort zone into more adventurous territory.

Political rant Weapon Of Choice is a statement of intent with a savage chorus and a fusion of acoustic and electric guitars, which is the album's signature sound. The band's feelings about George Bush's America are made clear enough with the repeated lyric, "I won't waste my love on a nation".

BRMC dust off a grand piano for the first time on the woozy Window, and sound as menacing as ever on the Led Zeppelin-style 666 Conducer and nine minute-long American X. The gorgeous symphonic drone of All You Do Is Talk is one of the best songs they have written.

Baby 81 is still not the outstanding, killer album that they should have made by now - but they are getting closer.