Slothrust : "Parallel Timeline"

Things are different. The mood has changed and matured even before we get to the hazy, with a jammed out ending highlighted by stellar guitar work, this marks a departure from how they kicked off their last album "the Pact". Where "|the Pact" was a much more polished effort than their previous albums, this one is another step forward in the refinement of their sound. They are less grunge than their earlier work, but still pack more punch than say HAIM.  As with previous efforts , when they back off of  the rocking , and she is given more breathing room to open and really sing, the magic happens. Not to say there is anything wrong with the first two songs , things just start clicking into place with "Courtesy". I did not expect Lizzy Hale to show up on "the Next Curse" . I just I never think of Halestorm and Slothrust being in the same sonic zip code. It works pretty well and finds the guitar sound back in a grunge direction. 

I heard "Strange Astrology" ahead of getting the entire album, and was impressed by the smooth hooky flow. Lyrically it  reminds me of all the astrology memes that littler my social media feeds. Waiting" starts off as a thoughtful piano ballad before the rest of the band kicks in. This is the crunchiest guitar tone so far.  This is not the album's only introspective piano centric moment, as they continue in this direction with "King Arthur's Seat" which bears some Beatles influence. Not what I expected from them going into this album, but I am here for it. There is a more folk feel to "A Giant Swallow" . The vocal melody to this one is fantastic and solidifies her on equal footing as any artist when it comes to song writing.  

There is a darker creep to the more emotionally urgent 'White Rabbits" which might be my favorite song on the album as it has everything I could want from these guys. I was also not expecting the title track that closes the album to be a soulful folk song.  The harmonies are perfect. In some ways it reminds me of Pink Floyd's more straight forward moments. I will round this one up to a 10 as there is not a bad song on it, some just need to grow on me slightly, though more often than not they drew me in and made me want to hear them again.