Bath, England outfit
the Heavy
have built a career out of making insanely raw and soulful music that blends shoot-from-the-hip garage rock intensity with an ear for tuneful, '60s R&B melodicism. The group's fourth studio album, 2016's
Hurt & the Merciless
, finds the band digging even deeper into its bloodshot-eyed aesthetic. Still showcasing the throaty renegade vocals of frontman
Kelvin Swaby
,
churn through track after track of aggressive, ball-busting anthems. Following up 2012's
The Glorious Dead
is yet another self-produced effort that purportedly found the bandmembers revisiting their early demos for inspiration. If getting a live, rough demo energy was the goal, then
have succeeded. While the album never sounds lo-fi, the production nonetheless has the taut, confrontational energy of a basement punk show or old-school juke-joint performance. Cuts like "Since You Been Gone," "The Apology," and "Turn Up" hum with crispy, fuzzed-out electric guitars, diamond-tipped backing vocals, and horns that blare as if pumped out of blown-out car speakers. Similarly, cuts like the frenetic "What Happened to the Love?" and "Slave to Your Love" sound something like
the MC5
doing
Little Richard
covers. Elsewhere,
rein things in somewhat on the yearning, acoustic guitar-heavy "Nobody's Hero" and weave orchestral strings into the minor-keyed "Last Confession." Of course, no album from
would be complete without a '50s monster movie-inspired number and here we get "Miss California," a cheeky anthem about a former beauty queen and heartbreaker who "spends your money as she spits your bones." The song, as with much of
, showcases
's distinctive ability to channel both
Cee Lo Green
and
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
at the same time. ~ Matt Collar