Album Review: Shannon & The Clams - Onion

If you're going to play a defiantly retro style of music then you need a modicum of authenticity, fortunately Bay Area rockers Shannon & The Clams posses that in spades with their timeless brand of throwback rock'n'roll sounding like transmissions from some long-lost classic AM radio broadcast.

For fifth album Onion, the four-piece decamped to Nashville to record with The Black Keys' frontman Dan Auerbach at the helm (who's also releasing it on his Easy Eye Sound label), but - with the possible exception of spaghetti western-vibing single Backstreets - they eschew any pretence of going country in favour of their usual amalgam of doo-wop, surf, '60s pop, soul and even gentle psych.

There's a pleasing natural diversity throughout with Shannon Shaw (bass/vocals) and Cody Blanchard (guitar/vocals) trading lead vocals then assisting with gorgeous harmonies when it's their turn out of the spotlight. Lyrically, the album consists of paeans to the backstreets and alleys of their native Oakland, but while the music is predominantly upbeat and light-hearted there's an inherent sense of melancholy due to the recording happening in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 Ghost Ship fire tragedy that ravaged their local artistic community (on top of the already constant hardships their scene was facing such as unaffordable housing).

But this band's default setting remains one of good time bonhomie, and even while they're airing legitimate concerns you'll unveil divergent varieties of old school charm as you peel back the layers of Onion.