The Trews are moving up in the world.

The Nova Scotia retro-riffin' pop-rockers opened The Stones' recent club show in Toronto. They're warming up for Robert Plant at MTS Centre next month. And this high-powered sophomore set seems destined to kick them another notch up the CanRock ladder.

Skillfully produced by rock vet Jack Douglas, the 15-track Den of Thieves is aimed squarely at the pop charts, the airwaves and the arena stage. Their formula is simple: Nick a crunching guitar hook and a punchy beat from AC/DC, borrow a melody line from The Beatles, add a funky bassline and a wah-wah pedal from Lenny Kravitz's soul shack, and top it all with a chorus too big to escape and some John Waite-meets-Myles Goodwin vocals.

On the downside: They don't do anything that hasn't been done before.

On the upside: They do it better and more consistently than most.

On the whole: They keep that up, they'll be the ones looking for warmup bands before long.

Track Listing:

1. Fire Up Ahead
2. Makin' Sunshine
3. Cry
4. Sweetness
5. I can't Say
6. So She's Leaving
7. Yearning
8. The Pearl (More than Everything)
9. Poor ol' Broken Hearted Me
10. Ana & Mia
11. Naked
12. Montebello Park
13. Got myself to Blame
14. The Travelling Kind
15. Ishmael & Maggie