The Dead Daisies – Lookin’ For Trouble – Album Review
22nd May 2025I was two shots of rum deep and trying to microwave a Pop-Tart with the foil still on when Lookin’ For Trouble kicked in. Somewhere between the first guitar stab and the smell of an electrical fire, I knew—I wasn’t gonna sleep tonight. Not while this greasy, glorious monster of a record was chewing through my speakers like it owed ’em money.
The Dead Daisies don’t play covers. They hijack them.. Duct-tape the originals to a chair and joyride through the Delta with the windows down and the cops in hot pursuit. “Crossroads” opens the album like a punchline to a bad deal with the Devil—loud, dirty, and not a damn thing left to prove. You can smell the brimstone on it.
Then it’s “Going Down,” which sounds like a bar fight between a Les Paul and a semi-truck. Somewhere during “Boom Boom,” I slipped on a spilled drink and fell directly into a drum fill. “Black Betty” didn’t even try to be subtle. It strutted in, took off its shirt, and challenged gravity to a fistfight.
There’s no filler here, unless you count my attempt to make a sandwich while “Born Under a Bad Sign” played and I forgot bread was required. “Sweet Home Chicago” shows up wearing a leather jacket and brass knuckles. “The Thrill Is Gone” arrives last, all smolder and spite, like someone lighting a love letter on fire just to warm their hands.
They recorded it live at Fame Studios, which is like breaking into church just to leave a beer on the altar. You can hear the ghosts—probably confused but into it. The whole thing breathes, sweats, stumbles a little, but keeps swinging. No ProTools safety net. Just amps, wires, and whatever’s left of their collective sanity.
John Corabi calls the blues “the soul of music,” and he’s right. But The Dead Daisies are the bad liver. The hangover. The one-night stand with no name and an expired passport. This record doesn’t whisper sweet nothings. It hollers drunk promises from a moving van and knocks over your mailbox on the way out.
Is it refined? No. It’s a bag of snakes in a tumble dryer. Is it fun? Absolutely. Will it make you feel something? Yes—and also probably fall over a chair. This album doesn’t just look for trouble. It finds it, buys it a drink, and sleeps on its couch for three weeks.
Score 8/10
Track List
1. I’m Ready
2. Going Down
3. Boom Boom
4. Black Betty
5. The Thrill Is Gone A
6. Born Under A Bad Sign
7. Crossroads
8. Sweet Home Chicago
9. Walking The Dog
10. Little Red Rooster
Label: The Dead Daisies Pty Ltd / SPV
Release: 30 May 2025
