Auckland/Durban based The Transits have done it to me again! This trio blew me away with their awesome video and record for previous single Lost Ones, and the new single Heartbreak Queen covers so much musical ground I’m actually spellbound.

These guys are fantastic song-writers, musicians and vocalists. Make no bones about it. This single, the promo for their up-coming album release on Friday 16th February this year (2024), is an absolute belter of a song. I can’t wait until then to release this review though, because this song excites me!

The video is released same day as the album but I have been fortunate enough to get a preview. I won’t spoil the surprise but the visuals are really compelling. The vid has budget, and has been constructed professionally, with props, outfits, excellent lighting and camera work that smacks of a unit that knows its stuff. Well done Reel Factory. I won’t name all the names, as they are covered in the write-up for the vid on the You Tubes.

Vocally the song starts almost in a Jesus & Mary Chain baritone, then hits a Brandon Flowers type fey rock-god timbre, as the instruments and engineering take the song into the heavens. Deeeeep bass and thundering drums are accompanied by the fat, heavy rhythm guitar sound that will always find a fan in me. There’s a wonderful melody, that takes the song close to punk-pop and 80s L.A. metal, which makes me even more of a fan of these guys.

Think up-tempo All American Rejects with a vocalist that can hold his own with the AAR guy, then make them slightly nastier and a whole heaped spoonful of interesting with their video imagery. This band is going places with regard to the pedigree they have attained in a very short while. They have been in the South Africa Top 40 Chart multiple times; placed in the NZ RadioScope Alt Chart; Rolling Stone AU/NZ; won the Show Me Shorts NZOA Best Music Video; are in the Official Selection 2024 Poppy Jasper International Film Festival; and showed at the recent Auckland Independent Film Showcase. Not bad. Not too bad at all.

This can fit on The Rock, Hauraki, the student and community channels AND the likes of ZB and More FM. This kind of music would kill in South East Asia and Japan, so this video needs to get airtime all over the place. I’m looking forward to that, because this band is most definitely a force of nature than deserves to get heard – and seen – everywhere.

Play this at the barbie, in the pub, in the car, commuting or anything in between. This is fabulous, commercially viable hard rock. Completely up my alley. Stick Friday 16th Feb down and pop into your music world; look up The Transits. The album is eponymously named. Come back to me without saying wow – I won’t believe you.