If you like the Bakersfield sound of The Eagles, a little bit of Bruce Hornsby and The Range, a pinch of Sade, a shake of Alison Moyet, finished off with some Fleetwood Mac; then the perversely original sound of Phantom Limb should probably be in your Record Collection.

I use the words ‘Record Collection’ deliberately as the sound quality achieved by Naim Audio on this CD is reminiscent of analogue quality sound achieved on vinyl in the 80s, of which this music so reminds me.

How a new band can remind me of so many groups from my youth but still be original is a difficult balancing act, but Phantom Limb achieve this with aplomb and a professionalism rarely heard or seen in such an ‘unsung’ new group.

To be honest it is almost (but not quite) the case that the quality of the recording becomes more important than the group itself. As well as getting lost in the music it is so easy to get carried away by the recording quality.

For the last thirty years I have been force fed systems offering ‘Surround Sound’, ‘Dolby’ ‘Hall’ ‘Live’ and god alone knows what other sound effects but I have never before been offered a sound ‘experience’ of this quality. The main disadvantage being that I now look on the rest of my CD collection as second best.

Having so obviously fallen into my own trap and proved the point concerning the quality taking over we will now take a quick look at Phantom Limb.

Apparently a Bristol Band, but I am really not sure how further forward this takes us. According to my sources (Google) the Bristol music scene is best described as ‘incestuous’. I have given this a bit of thought (not too much) and can only compare this with Brussel Sprouts being described as ‘green’. I have neither tasted green (ok Vinho Verde accepted) nor heard incestuous so what is the bloody point in that literary departure?

At the time of writing I can’t find the CD case which means that I am going to have to do my job properly. iTunes classifies the album as ‘Blues’ so I suppose it must be, anyway:

‘Don’t say a word’ is so reminiscent of the Eagles on Desperado, that it appears as if said Eagles have got a female lead or castrated their frontman; a really good opening track which picks up where Desperado left off and is not a pale imitation.

From this point Phantom Limb just goes off on one, or more appropriately out on one; ‘Withering Bones’ hands the baton to Bonnie Raitt who halfway through the song smacks Aretha Franklin in the back of the head with it and retires to a well earned wadge of cornbread and Southern Style Chicken. I couldn’t tell you how many female singers there are in Phantom Limb but by the end of the second track you get the impression that they, or she or the castrated Eagle are (or is) bloody good.