Arrow

Rocking alt-country, with '70s glam/'70s rock influences, and a nice indie-pop sheen. Erika Wennerstrom's got a piercing, limber, soaring, beautiful voice, and the rest of the Bastards rock the hell out, with backwards-looking guitars and drums-- it all falls into place nicely, and keeps a innate driving rhythm. This is great, great stuff. Amazing hooks all over the place.

All tracks are good, but lean towards the starred ones, early in the album. No FCCS detected.

1. (6:09) ****** Dragged-out cool alt-country, slow and subtle epic chorus. Soft cymbal crashes. Everything is huge and swinging, and her voice is beautiful. It soars higher and higher, and never seems to end. FANTASTIC.
2. (4:57) **** Sun-shiney rocking folk, with Stonesy guitars. Gets jammy but never loses focus, then hand-clappy and stompy and insane drumming, driving.
3. (3:55) ** T-Rex glam number. But seriously, couldn't be more T-Rex if it tried. It's T-Rex, but with Erika Wennerstrom singing. A good number, though.
4. (5:08) **** Late '60s grooving blues-rock, bass heavy (e.g. "Don't Let Me Down") type. Slow, sultry vocal turn. Sudden melodic shift halfway in. But holds onto groove. Her voice is weaving, delicate.
5. (4:34) * Louder wall of guitars, simple repetitive chorus. But it's loud and brash and a lot of energy. Everything's loud at once. "SIMPLE FEELING SIMPLE FEELING..."
6. (3:59) Woo-hooing driving folk with acoustic guitar.
7. (6:31) Minor-key country intro, swaying folk vocals, with almost Balkan rhythms. Dramatic gathering-stormclouds tympani. Very true to itself-- this thing goes on forever.
8. (3:59) Major-color thrashing guitars start it out, weavy acrid vocals. Goes on quite a while in this large, loud way.
9. (5:03) Sparser, folky thumper. She has a lot of soul in the vocal, and there's an earthy authenticity.
10. (7:35) * Large, thwomping guitars start. Methodical, slow swaying voice. Repetitive, hypnotic. Slightly psychey groove, gets electric and loud, ends with a flourish; some intense drumming.

-Hervey Okkles