self release
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that sequels are, with few exceptions, bad ideas. This is not the case for STL’s own Aquitaine (formerly Supermoon) and their follow-up EP to 2012’s American Pulverizer. There’s a lot that will be familiar to fans of the first, including sharp guitars seemingly pulled directly from the hands of The Jam’s Paul Weller, and vocals out of Peter Murphy’s back catalog driven to post-punk speed. Fans of classic British mod/new wave will have plenty to enjoy here, not the least of which is the guitar riff for leadoff track “Robotson,” the closest you’ll get to those quintessential sounds without actually riding a time machine back to 1977.
But the Brit-leaning stuff isn’t all there is to enjoy; drummer Chris Luckett bashes and crashes without losing momentum, finding weird little pockets of interesting stuff; bassist and band leader Dave Collett brings the heat to the low end; and former guitarist Gerald Good (now replaced onstage but not on this record by Graham Day) shines as both riff writer and singer on the unexpectedly sentimental “Meteor Showers. “ A smattering of familiar sounds cue more of the group’s influences—The Kinks, Pulp, Johnny Marr, The Who—but the resulting mixture is purely theirs. The only real problem with this fine disc of rockers is that it’s too short. Take that as a compliment. Jason Robinson
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