Angel

About

Now a full-time quartet, the Austin, Texas–based Pure X alter course and indulge their introspective side for their third album, 2014’s <i>Angel</i>. It was recorded mostly live to tape (with minimal overdubs) over five days at Wied Hall, a rustic 100-year-old dance hall in rural central Texas. Touring guitarist Matty Tommy Davidson’s newfound permanent status lets the band fill out their skeletal sound with a musician who understands how they work from the inside out, and songs such as “Valley of Tears,” “Livin’ the Dream,” and “Every Tomorrow” center on laid-back grooves, breezy falsetto vocals, and instrumentation that’s mostly atmospheric and melodic. Even when they do ramp up the aggression for “Fly Away with Me Woman,” it appears to fall away as the verses take hold. This isn’t a group looking to pick a fight or overly flaunt their maleness, even with a tune like “Make You Want Me,” where it sounds like they might unleash their egos. Nothing, it seems, can disturb their quest for mellowness.

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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