The BellRays - Black Lightning (2010)

The BellRays, Riverside, California's finest export, return with Black Lightning, arguably their finest collection of songs to date. A relentless and unique melting pot of rock n' soul; imagine Gladys Knight fronting The MC5; Aretha Franklin jamming with Black Flag, it shouldn't work but it does, and gloriously. Black Lightning - ten blisteringly well-crafted pop songs squeezed into a 30-minute blast - catches you off guard with its elegant marriage of genres, effortlessly twisting and turning.