6 / 10
You’re going to get round to that coast-to-coast road-trip across the States, and when you do you’re going to need to load your Chevy stereo heavily with rolling Americana. On a quiet day, The Hold Steady will get you from downtown Manhattan to Times Square, but then what? You’ll still have 3000 miles of open road stretching before your hood mantle! Well, then you turn to Marah.
Today, it’s six cruisers of the interstates that make up Marah, while a further ten former members lay defunct in their wake like pummelled road kill. And ‘Angels Of Destruction’ is the band’s ninth studio album. So needless to say, despite the roaming analogies, cowboys these guys ain’t. Tracks like ‘Angels On A Passing Train’, swoon with religious imagery and elevate in their choruses, nodding unashamedly to Dylan and Springsteen, while ‘Jesus In The Temple’ is a BRMC mosey into the sunset, delivered with adventurous gusto that’s matched by anything found here.
Stuart Stubbs
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