Two of three out of three ain’t bad . . .
Reviewed by Brian McGowan and release by Spinefarm Records June 2018.
The Record Company are a true find. Few rock bands kick off with a stripped down sound on their debut, then crank up the electric guitars and the stakes on the follow up.
They hail from Los Angeles, but their music was born way south of the Mason-Dixon line.
This second album, All Of This Life, adds layers of muscle to the bone and sinew sound of Give It Back To You, the debut – their basic guitar, bass, drum combination finding more variations in mood, texture and rhythm than can be created by many other bands with multiple instruments.
The band’s well drilled musical authenticity first takes flight on the bluesy, rootsy ‘I’m Getting Better’, with hillbilly beats, harmonica and clanging guitars egging on the track’s shouty bgvs. ‘Make It Happen’ and ‘You And Me Now’ feed greedily on the grits and catfish duets of swampy slide guitars and pedal steels.
That said, two tracks in particular stand head and shoulders above the rest. ‘Goodbye To The High Life’ veers off tangentially, a falsetto ballad that reminds us of the debut’s spare sonics, then catches us by surprise by launching a powerful, choral chorus. And ‘Coming Home’, a Stonesy, live in the studio celebration, driven by the vigorous thrust and strum of Chris Vos’s guitar and the quick, dexterous precision of Alex Stiff’s bass.
This trio have talent to burn. It’s no wonder that Rolling Stone magazine listed them in their “10 New Bands You Need To Know” list, back in 2016, the year of the debut.
Tracklist:
- Life To Fix
- I’m Getting Better
- Goodbye To The Hard Life
- Make It Happen
- You And Me Now
- Coming Home
- The Movie Song
- Night Games
- Roll Bones
- I’m Changing
