Riverboat Gamblers - Underneath The Owl

Alcohol’s hazardous qualities appear enhanced where rock bands are concerned. Riverboat Gamblers’ early predilection to ditties about bevvy enforce the perception that it generally encourages poor decision-making (eg swinging a microphone on stage beside your bass guitarist, whose teeth thereafter resemble the remnants of a Ming vase strewn across concrete). Underneath The Owl thankfully bucks that trend; opener DissDissDissKissKissKiss serves as a shoegazer-bludgeoning manifesto for the longplayer. Meanwhile, Robots May Break Your Heart serves as an erudite nod to 70s rock 'n' roll aided by sprinkles of glockenspiel. The album's lucidity is refreshing, but there are occasional relapses into noisy drudgery.  Let Iggy Pop serve as forewarning: half a century of dousing your vital organs in ethanol is bound to encourage a scenario where paying off your bar tab involves gyrating maniacally for the sake of an insurance advert. No amount of whisky is worth the indignity.