Album Review: Dallas Crane - Scoundrels

In the early 2000s, Dallas Crane were one of the best live bands you could witness at your local on a weekend, touring so ferociously that it didn't really matter where your local was, odds are they'd have a date locked in. Though the band had been inactive for multiple years, we were given singles I'm Sorry Darling and Get Off The Dope initially in late 2013/early 2014 with thoughts of an album soon after. Recording delays took hold but we're now able to wrap our ears around Scoundrels and it seems it was worth the wait.

Wedging its sound between the raw wailing energy of their self-titled release and the production-focused Factory Girls, Scoundrels captures the band unleashing fresh set of good times, straight up rock'n'roll. Opening with the blues-riffed boogie of The Sunnyside, vocalist Dave Larkin's gravelly rasping cries sets an immediate hard-rocking tone that follows the majority of the record while still managing to keep tracks dynamic enough to avoid the obvious pit of rock cliches and polarisation. Moments like Pete Satchell's echoing chorus lines on So It Goes and the spiralling and ferocious leads in Billie's Gonna Die Young are part of an eclectic mix that is as much pop-styled as it is rock-driven. With progressive bounds in songwriting becoming incredibly apparent in the book-ending track The Good Times, it instantly etches in the mind with a stunning melody and rich chorus that along with many others here are begging to be played live.