We Need Medicine

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Scots rockers The Fratellis return after a five-year hiatus with <i>We Need Medicine</i>, a comeback album that’s careful to return energy levels to that of their 2006 debut album, <i>Costello Music</i>. Less nervous and jittery, songs like “Halloween Blues” and “This Old Ghost Town” pound the strike zone with meaty hooks and ambitious playing. Keith Richards appears to have made his influence known on such Stones-like tunes as “She’s Not Gone Yet but She’s Leaving” and “Shotgun Shoes.” Those moves turn into a focused version of The Strokes on the jumpy-but-contained “Whisky Saga.” A bar band emerges on “This Is Not the End of the World,” while The Fratellis move closer to new wave roots-rock on “Jeannie Nitro.” The title track offers up a gospel-revival choir of voices before the band members go inside the bar to get their instruments. That vibe continues on “Until She Saves My Soul,” the apparent answer song to the earnest “Rock N Roll Will Break Your Heart.”

via Apple Music

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