Suburban Hymns

Listening to The Life And Times' new album, Suburban Hymns, is a little like being in the back seat of a car at night, dozing, looking out of the rear window at the stars, drifting from dream to dream, and occasionally realizing that the car is hauling ass. There's a certain quivering, vibrating tension belying those fat tires, that gentle suspension and the plush velour interior that tells you there's horsepower at play here, but so smooth and thick you don't even think to go looking for it.

That car of course, is The Life And Times, and driving all night without so much as a piss-break is Allen Epley (voc/gtr), Eric Abert (bass/moog), and Chris Metcalf (drums). Long a veteran of the Kansas City music scene, Epley fronted much-loved Shiner for years. After Shiner's demise, Epley gathered together Abert from Ring, Cicada and Metcalf from Stella Link without skipping a beat, became a father, recorded and hit the road. On this, their second album (the first with this lineup), the sound settled into the throaty mix of thick and thin that starts up when you twist Suburban Hymns in the ignition - a blend of scratching, ragged, ragged bass lines, mellotron chording, fat multi-layered guitars and moog notes, wrapped easily in a fuzzy blanket of pounding drums.