{"id":23163,"date":"2022-06-18T05:30:36","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T09:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23163"},"modified":"2022-06-15T11:20:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T15:20:11","slug":"album-review-walker-brigade-if-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/18\/album-review-walker-brigade-if-only\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Walker Brigade &#8212; If Only"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-23164\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/walker_brigade_if_only.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/walker_brigade_if_only.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/walker_brigade_if_only-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/walker_brigade_if_only-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>If we\u2019re honest, it\u2019s not the hardest thing in the world to create a batch of hard rocking tunes. It\u2019s substantially more challenging to write durable melodies, and\/or to create meaningful lyrics that exude passion, commitment and authenticity. And to do all of those things at once is a rare feat indeed. But a new foursome from Los Angeles calling itself Walker Brigade has managed all of that, on their debut release. Bursting out of the speakers with \u201cFallout,\u201d the group delivers the goods, with Mark Fletcher\u2019s thunderous (and exceedingly well-recorded) bass guitar supporting a tight, taut and terrific ensemble.<\/p>\n<p><i>If Only<\/i>\u2019s centerpiece, though, is the impassioned and expressive vocal work of rhythm guitarist Tracy Walker. Peppy hand claps give the songs a foundation in pop, but the grown-up subject matter and supremely rocking character of the songs places it into the melodic end of the postpunk pool. Craig Tyrka\u2019s expressive and varied drumming on tunes like \u201cTower\u201d propel the band into the musical stratosphere. And Jeff Charreaux\u2019s slashing lead guitar is the icing on the cake. <i>If Only<\/i> is a persuasive rebuttal to those who would pronounce the rock era done and dusted. Breathlessly recommended!<\/p>\n<p>(Don&#8217;t miss the six bonus tracks appended to the CD release; those include two fiery Soft Boys covers that provide a reference point for the group&#8217;s inspirations.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we\u2019re honest, it\u2019s not the hardest thing in the world to create a batch of hard rocking tunes. It\u2019s substantially more challenging to write durable melodies, and\/or to create [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,53,62,65],"tags":[4161,4867],"class_list":["post-23163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-post-punk","category-rawk","category-review","tag-big-stir-records","tag-walker-brigade","cat-49-id","cat-53-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23167,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163\/revisions\/23167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}