Album review : ENUFF Z’NUFF – Extra Cherries

Cleopatra [Release date : 25.07.25]

Enuff Z’Nuff have released 6 albums in the last ten years. The latest, Extra Cherries is the 20th since the 1989 debut.

The band, plagued by illness, worn down by constant touring, has seen members come and go. Only Chip Z’Nuff survives from the first edition.

But the spark is still alive. He’s added some seriously good musicians in guitarists, Jason Camino and Luis Kalil, plus Daxx (son of Rick) Nielsen on drums.

Enough to fire up some seriously good rock’n’roll.

There’s a thread running through Extra Cherries. EZN is a band that’s had its equilibrium disturbed and is working hard to regain it. Not everything works. ‘Take It Or Leave It’ and ‘You Make Me Wanna Lie’ seem to have lost that spark somewhere along the line, despite guest vocals on the latter from Robin (Cheap Trick) Zander.

But those songs are in the shadows.

Chip’s double tracked vocals give ‘Heavy Metal’ a sinewy strength. It’s very White Album. The song’s shapeshifting sound often seems like something just as interesting, but just out of reach, is going on the background.

The muscular pop metal of ‘Magnificent’ (Steve Stevens guests), underlined by a sawing riff, and some razoring axe soloing, keeps the energy levels high.

It twins up with ‘Star, Star’ (Gunnar Nelson guests), an old fashioned, Mott The Hoople slice of rock’n’roll, given a thumping percussive heartbeat.

Unsurprisingly, the standouts frontload the album.

There are the expected Beatles’ references and cues slippin’ and slidin’ through the music, as usual. Chip’s ragged baritone sounds more like Lennon with every album. The dark, moody, operatic rock of ‘No Cold Feeling’ is no exception.

Steve (Danger Danger) Brown plays a classy piano accompaniment to the achingly sentimental ‘Heartbeat’, the album’s lead track. It’s blessed with a tune that shimmers and sparkles in slo-mo.

The Enuff Z’Nuff story continues. ***1/2

Review by Brian McGowan

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