For all the good will buzzing around the internet about Plush, the new all-girl stadium rock sensation from the States, one big question remains: are they any good?

Well, if you’d seen pint-sized vocalist Moriah Formica on American TV’s The Voice, or any of that just-mentioned interweb footage of the band slaying Heart songs live, you’d know the answer to that. These girls can clearly sing and play the phone book…

Which is lucky, because there are parts of their self-titled album that come close to that venerable tome in terms of excitement and inspiration; Third rate rewarmings of the greatest hits of post grunge and nu-metal aren’t the stuff of legend, clearly, but when the band click and start to fire on all six, you’ll have to admit that they are very, very good indeed…

So, Hate might sound like one of Amy Lee‘s discarded soundcheck noodlings as reimagined by Kelly Clarkson in her ‘alt’ phase, but somehow, given the sheer fire-in-the-eyes conviction of Formica’s delivery it works on just about every level imaginable. Pure, undiluted talent can do that for a song, and it’s hard not to be completely swept away by the unmitigated firepower of the woman’s vocal arsenal. On the emotional squall of Why Do I Even Try she’s even better, but the song just doesn’t quite do her justice. The more up-to-date sounding Bring me Down sees things click better, and the closing crescendo of the song is an undoubted highlight.

Found a Way sees the band backing Formica to the hilt, with Brooke Colucci‘s impressive drumming locking in with bassist Ashley Suppa and providing the framework over which Bella Perron adds some crunchy rifferama, and a neat solo to boot. Here the band sound a little more, erm, plush, as opposed to being the sum of a record company A&R man’s spotify library. And it points to a very bright future indeed if the band are prepared to follow their noses with a bit more confidence.

Confidence may well be the wrong word, as there’s clearly nothing wrong with the self-esteem of this quartet, but it’s not too much to expect, from an outsider’s perspective,  a bit more originality from a band who clearly have it in spades when it comes to talent. Still, as Moriah barks so sassily on the strutting I Don’t Care, she doesn’t care what I think – and why should she… I ‘ve a feeling the jaded carping of this old hack isn’t going to hold these girls back, and neither should it… Good luck to all who sail in the goodship Plush – but I don’t think luck will feature in the equation over much in the final washup. Talent will out!

Plush releases on November 12th.