I really liked these guys' first album. Did a short review. This one, though, is an awful lot better. Back then I wondered how five guys could create such a full sound. That's still a mystery to me, but the true wonder is the sound itself.

There's no easy way to categorize Clock Hands Strangle. The simplest description would be raucous roots fare with horns. But that would ignore the solid song construction and tight playing. Yeah, these songs often seem to be devolving into cacophony, but the center always holds. These boys know what they're doing, even when the playing gets almost hyperkinetic.

Imagine a convergence of ALL, Meat Puppets and the Wrens. Okay, so those references kinds show my age, but they're still apt. CHS is fearless in its reinterpretation of a wide variety of sounds, and they play so well and so energetically that there are no holes whatsoever.

A joy, pure and simple. A lot of my friends ask me why I listen to a hundred or two dreadful albums a month. An album like this is all the answer I need. Flat out brilliant.