While primarily ensconced in country / alt-rock territory, Wussy’s fifth long-player is an album that straddles a number of styles and, significantly, adapts the forms to create a sound that’s quite distinctive. The first two tracks encapsulate the two different sides of Wussy: the Lisa Walker side, which leans toward poppier territory, and the darker Chuck Cleaver side.
‘Teenage Wasteland’ sounds like a definitive college rock anthem from some time in the early 9o0s, while ‘Rainbows and Butterflies’ sounds like QOTSA covering ‘Teenage Kicks’. It’s when these two sides come together that Wussy are at their best, as on ‘Bug’, where a sludge bass and fuzzed-out guitar provide the backdrop to a heart-rendingly desperate duet.
‘Acetyline’ is a moody country song that simmers and burns as an overloading guitar wails mournfully in the setting sun. It’s a trick they repeat variously throughout the album, with otherwise ordinary country tunes being transformed by layers of distortion - and more often than not, it works. ‘Beautiful’ isn’t only a lighter-waving country anthem with the amps turned up, but a thoughtfully reflective track that reflects the sagacity of age and experience in the chorus line ‘I’m not the monster that I once was / 20 years ago I was more beautiful than I am today’. Eloquent, varied and overall rather good.
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