Slothrust : "Everyone Else"

Been a fan of this band since I stumbled across them on Noisey Vice. They are pretty much just rock n roll though there is indie rock and grunge in the mix. They fuse apathy into the punk  attitude that reminds me of  when  Sonic Youth was once punk. The first real song is "Like a Child Hiding Behind Your Tombstone". This weaves it's wave into some pretty impressive jazz chops. The vocals of Leah Wellbaum are sometimes plaintive and some times emotive. "Horseshoe Crab" which is the first song I heard from these kids is pretty powerful and touches on emo in it's honesty. There is more intensity to "Pseudo Culture" which is very interesting from a lyrical perspective and has some heavier punches to it. There is a more casual swagger to " the Last Time I Saw My Horse", which find them continuing to use some interesting jazz inflected guitar phrasing. They play more deliberately when this song builds up, but it never rocks out in doing so.

 A power trio every one is one their game and making sure everything fits just right. They do rock out in a more convincing yet angular fashion on "Mud". Lyrically the song is smart and the vocals like the instrumentation is very well placed. There is a slight jammy element to this song , but it works for what they are doing and is not over indulgent. At first going into the minute and half "Trial and Error" you think this is going to be an interlude, but instead it's thrown together in a more punk fashion. This one floats with a lazier feel and doesn't feel like it comes together as solidly as the other songs on this album.

They jangle to the point of touching on country on "Pigpen" which given the name of the song might not be by mistake, They are not trying hard to wow you here, but there is some very cool yet subtle moment on this one. I think this album is excellent, one song did't resonate with me on the same level as the rest of the album, but overall impressive enough for me to round this up tio a 9.5.