Now this is rock and roll!

"Life Gets you Dirty…" chugs and churns along signaling the return of one Michael Monroe, yesterday of Hanoi, more recently of the solo variety… and even more recently, MIA?

When's the last time we've heard anything from Monroe anyway?

I'm not even sure what happened to that Jerusalem Slim thing with Steve Stevens a while back. I'll say one thing, I never cared much for the stuff he did with Hanoi Rocks, though some of it was okay, and don't know a thing about his past work as a solo artist but I like what I hear so far with this new one!

First two tracks cut right to the bone-that's the title cut and "Just Because You're Paranoid," highly explosive and energetic. A real slice of heavy metal hysterics!

Looking through the pics, Monroe hasn't changed much… the whole pretty boy image… that look-big hair, wild costume, confident grin… But this has got some thunder in the distance without really dismissing the previous glam/trash hybrid style he'd been one of the top practioners of… Proving equally pretty in punk this time around, this one's got style, it's got groove, and most definitely rocks a little unexpectedly-third song, the most melodic of the opening three, "Since When Do You Care?" is another wild ride… and check it out, he's doing all the guitars!

Looks like a return home to his native Finland really gave him that extra "step" to the move, so to speak, as this shows all indications for being a rousing success on all counts-fresh, flavorful, feisty and commercially charismatic… and, a re-covering of Hanoi's old "Self Destruction Blues" where if it didn't do it the first time, all I can say now is, bye bye blues!

About halfway through and I don't hear a pop lick on here yet-amazing but true. Monroe's actually kept quite busy by the looks of things, aside from his solo stuff of recent years, working again with former Hanoi bandmates in this Demolition 23 thing that's since dissolved, but I'll give him credit, the guy's refocused his energies on this new band and the new material cranks! Further proof of how far you can go with a little dirty livin'…

Released by SPV Records

Review by Vinnie Apicella