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SHARK SANDWICH – Fast Album Reviews for Those on the Go
May 10, 2019 – Vol. 94
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Music reviews come in all sizes, but you’re busy and do not have time for flowery language… or sentences, really.
Spinal Tap gave the world the greatest album review of all time:
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Welcome to our “Shark Sandwich” — razor-sharp reviews that sum up an album in five sentences or less.
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Guitar Wolf – LOVE&JETT
Straight outta Tokyo, Guitar Wolf is back with LOVE&JETT, a noisy hand grenade of garagepunk. Sounding like Link Wray fronting Sham 69, Guitar Wolf is aptly named. The trio together is a wolf made of all the loudest guitars in the world, or a guitar made up of all the direwolves on Game of Thrones. Either way, they make a trashy noise that will annoy your neighbors, teachers, pastors, spouses, senators, parents, grandparents, whatever authority figure you have. Forget ‘em, though, because while you can hang with Guitar Wolf, they cannot.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 whistles
Key Track: “Bowling in Takada-No-Baba”
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The Skints – Swimming Lessons
Tropical and bubbly, London’s The Skints breeze their way into your consciousness with Swimming Lessons. It’s not all sand and drinks with umbrellas in them, though. Storm clouds gather on tracks like “Learning to Swim,” and they open up with an unhinged downpour on “The Island.” Swimming Lessons is the perfect soundtrack to an afternoon at the skate park, or shoplifting beer from that one bodega by the bus stop. I suppose you could listen at the beach, too, but that seems a little too on-the-nose.
Rating: 4 out of 5 whistles
Key Track: “Learning to Swim”
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Jamila Woods – Legacy! Legacy!
American singer/songwriter and poet Jamila Woods has gifted the world Legacy! Legacy! this week; it’s a cycle of songs influenced by, and named after, artists of color. There is a wily hardness to Woods’ delivery that is, if not intentional, completely perfect on this record. This is not party music. This is school, school for people who already know, and for those who are open and curious. If you don’t have a long reading/listening list by the end of this album, you are doing everything wrong.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 whistles
Key Track: “MUDDY”
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Nots – 3
Memphis trio, Nots, is not going to make this easy for you with 3. The guitars wail just like you want them to, but there is an otherworldly quality to them that will make you question whether you are awake or not. The vocals are untamed chants that are pushed into the mix making them no more important than the din of the rhythm and noise the band coaxes from their instruments. Put 3 on at a party with your work mates, and see what happens. It’ll clear the room, but those who stick around are your people for life.
Rating: 4 out of 5 whistles
Key Track: “Floating Hand”
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Charly Bliss – Young Enough
Celebratory and inclusive, Charly Bliss leaves nothing on the table with Young Enough. It’s all in play. The songs are poppy in the best ways, the guitars buzz, the tempo mostly gallops, and there are enough new wavey keys to make the Cars proud. “It’s gonna break my heart to see it blown to bits,” Charly Bliss opens the album, but really? If it explodes because of the unqualified buzzbomb that this album is, I must confess that my heart will not be broken, but glad.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 whistles
Key Track: “Blown to Bits”
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All artists are available on iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, and wherever else better music is sold, streamed, downloaded, or performed on tour.
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NewsWhistle music contributor Chad Werner is “ahead of the curve, behind the times.” You can contact this rock n’ roll sphinx at chad@newswhistle.com (e-mail) or @scooternotmoped (Twitter).
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Lead-In Image – Composite
- Album and sleeve – Courtesy of imagefactory / Shutterstock.com
- Main album cover – Courtesy of Blablo101 / Shutterstock.com
- Album collage – Nots – Goner Records; The Skints – Easy Star/Mr. Bongo; Jamila Woods – Jagjaguwar; Charly Bliss – Barsuk; and Guitar Wolf – Third Man Records.
