Tom Tikka is an artist to which we keep returning. He and his Missing Hubcaps prove quite the combination, offering up classic rock tinged with heartbreak.

By Graeme Smith

We’ve heard some of their new album, Roomful of Strangers, before. Wrecking Ball graced our pages in 2024 as a single. Yet, it’s interesting to hear as part of a long player, a chapter within Tom and his band’s wider story.

That story involves two frontmen and two lead guitarists. Tikka trades singing duties with Nicklas Nyman on Wrecking Ball and Red-Head Doll while handing the lead guitar to Lappe Holopainen for The Day I Found You and It Was Always You. The result is a varied collection, and a tribute to the lineup that originally helped Tikka become big in his native Finland as part of Carmen Gray.

Tom Tikka remains at the heart of the project, singing and playing lead on the rest, giving us swaggering solos and soulful vocals. Roomful of Strangers is an album for lovers of classic rock with a story to tell and is chock full of tracks that transport. It’s not pretentious – simply good old-fashioned songwriting.

Roomful of Strangers is out now, and you can listen to it below.

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