Album Review: Twin Peaks - Wild Onion

No, there won’t be any David Lynch references here, as much as I want to throw them in.

Mostly because Twin Peaks probably wouldn’t give a shit about any comparison. This is lo-fi slacker garage noise at its finest and most boisterous, and apart from the clear directness of the band’s music, there’s not much more that has to be said.

However, it’s hard not to draw comparisons to Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees – seeing as how those two are at the top of the garage game right now – but Wild Onion stands on its own, even if you feel you’ve heard these jangly, wobbly guitar lines a million times before. The immediacy and rawness of tracks like No Way Out and the Eagles-loving groove of Good Lovin’ sucks a huge amount of dense energy through a fairly narrow tube of straight-up rock. It’s all about good guitar work, able rhythm and syncopation, and Cadien Lake James’ voice, which finds some sort of unholy middle ground between Jagger, Adam Granduciel and Stephen Malkmus.

It’s the brave production that really pushes Wild Onion into better-than-average territory. Lead breaks often explode out in fits of high-end noise, which can be jarring, but seem to be deliberate attempts to add another dimension. And yes, while the whole “Hey-listen-to-my-vintage-tube-amp” state of modern production does get a little old hat, there’s little room to stop and think on Wild Onion. “Fuck it,” the band seems to say. “Let’s just make fun.”