Another excellent addition to CJ’s impressive back catalogue, whether solo, with The Wildhearts, Honeycrack, or any of number of bands across 40 years!
The ever-prolific CJ Wildheart is back with ‘Devil’, his eighth solo album (and seventh in twelve years). Keeping up the tradition of using single five letter word titles, ‘Devil’ quickly follows 2025’s ‘Slots’, and is another adrenaline-fueled slice of Punk’n’roll.
Dedicated to the memory of Scott Sorry, his fellow alumnus from The Wildhearts, CJ has brought Bullet For My Valentine’s Jason Bowld back in to add drums to an album where CJ plays guitar, bass and keyboards. Dave Draper has sprinkled his usual musical gold dust on the mixes, whilst a whole bunch of misfits and reprobates piled into the studio for a day to become The Ruptured Pipes Community Choir, adding gang vocals to several of the tracks.
“I’ll be honest, I really struggled with this one, not so much writing it, but trying to find the drive,” CJ explains. “Each year it gets harder to survive as an independent artist, and I always put in 100 percent into everything I do and this time round I came so close to just stopping. I am so thankful I didn’t, as I poured my frustrations into this album and my passion, I believe, shines through”.
The opening track, anti-fascist anthem ‘Nein Nein Nein’ is a glorious, Ramones-aping frenzy in which Jason’s relentless drums never let up, while CJ’s guttural vocal spits out the lyrics at breakneck speed. The sedate spoken word intro to ‘The Art of Being Free’ quickly turns into another melodic humdinger of a song with a catchy chorus to match.
‘Diva’ is two minutes of heavy-as-fuck thrashy punk rock, as CJ goes full Motörhead on us with a cracking bass line, augmented by Jason’s thunderous drums. There’s even a distorted ‘Barbara Ann’ in there to add to the magic. CJ is reflecting on past glories on ‘SOB’ as rock’n’roll excesses finally catch up with the former young gun. There’s a suitably debauched guitar solo to echo those past exploits!
‘Sometime to Return’ is probably the album’s most Wildhearts-sounding song with its harmonies and power chords. Recent single ‘One of the Boys’ follows, as CJ’s potential swansong wrestles with the difficulties of being an older artist, whilst looking back upon a life in music. There’s a nice Skids-like “Ahoy, Ahoy” as the gang pitch in for their terrace chant.
There’s more than a trace of the Pistols in ‘Rotten’ although the lyrics concern nasty drugs rather than Mr. Lydon himself! ‘No More’ starts with the familiar call of “war, what is it good for, absolutely nothing” as CJ fears for future generations while the warmongers raise their ugly heads again. So far, every song on the album has single potential, and ‘Twenty Two’ is no different, with its eminently sing-along chorus, and a screeching guitar solo that never outstays its welcome.
Final track ‘Fade’ is lyrically the most emotional song on the album, and is especially poignant to those of us who have seen parents and family fade away in their later years, becoming shadows of their former shelves.
CJ Wildheart has done it again, producing another hook-laden album and, to our delight, not an acoustic guitar in sight! We really do hope that CJ has plenty more albums in him, but he needs our support to keep going, so dig deep and add this record to your collection. You won’t be disappointed.
‘Devil’ is self-released on 26 June 2026 – buy your copy on CD or vinyl HERE, and head to CJ’s Bandcamp page on release date for the digital download. The album will also be released by a Japanese label as a special double album featuring J-Card slots and five bonus tracks!
Main Photo Credit: IAN LADLOW
- Nein Nein Nein
- The Art of Being Free
- Diva
- SOB
- Sometime to Return
- One of the Boys
- Rotten
- No More
- Twenty Two
- Fade
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