Album Review: Milk Music - Cruise Your Illusion

Fuzz rockers Milk Music crawled out of Olympia, Washington – the small town central to the Nirvana story, also home to Sleater-Kinney – and they accordingly display an indisputable Pacific Northwest vibe that shines vociferously in their powerful music.

Milk Music built a big buzz around their 2010 debut EP Beyond Living, and have delivered on this promise with debut long-player Cruise Your Illusion, owning a sound that's authentic and gritty but with clear nods to hard rock classicism. Singer/guitarist Alex Coxen sounds like Hüsker Dü-era Bob Mould – partly due to where his vocals are placed in the mix – and the music all somehow feels loose, even though the arrangements are watertight and there's nary a note or tone out of place. Opening instrumental coda Caged Dogs Run Wild morphs into the insanely catchy Illegal And Free and the inevitable Dinosaur Jr comparisons kick in – even though the guitars do occasionally have that feel, as well as sounding in parts like Built To Spill, they're all clearly copping from the same Neil Young tropes. New Lease On Love rides on choppy guitars, the pained diatribe of Cruising With God is offset by cathartic yelps, Crosstown Wanderer starts with fun, catchy riffs but melts into a wash of epic passion, while No, Nothing, My Shelter is liberating in its levity. There's no real weak points, closer The Final Scene an incredible finale, a shift down in pace but a vertical leap in intensity, a desperate cry for redemption complete with brilliantly hooky backing vocals.

Cruise Your Illusion is ambitious but not too serious, emotive but not histrionic – a breathtakingly excellent debut from a new rock'n'roll force in our midst.