Filthy Friends – Emerald Valley
Filthy Friends prove their collective mettle with a thematic suite of songs that find Corin Tucker raging about the fate of our planet on a bed of Peter Buck's strongest set of tunes in years
There are battles raging all over on Filthy Friends' second album: snappy pop-punk, jangling widescreen guitar lines and even a bit of shoegazing all jostle for position under some restrained production. The strengths so clearly on display on Emerald Valley could easily have disappeared under the weight of the subject matter of the songs (make no mistake, this is a protest record), but its melodic delights just stretch out further across ten songs and 35-minutes of absolute craft and class.
As you'd expect from an album featuring Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5) on guitars, the proceedings are dominated by crunching chords and austere arpeggios, but this is Corin Tucker's record, really: the title track, Pipeline and Last Chance County are stand-outs, as the Sleater-Kinney co-founder righteously rages in turns about America, oil and income inequality. Her demonstrative delivery anchors this modern rock'n'record and the thematic lyrics help set the tunes in a time and place familiar to listeners everywhere. There's Rolling Stones-esque grooves, bawdry southern rock balladry and racket rawk right across Emerald Valley and the album never gets dull – this is a band spreading their wings with no pressure other than the job of satisfying themselves.
Peter Buck opens the bags of electric ammunition marked 'Monster' and 'Accelerate' and R.E.M. fans will find much to love – in particular on album closer Hey Lacey. A lovely lop-sided melody, it offers the record's most beautiful moment with a chord sequence and Rickenbacker jangle reminiscent of mid-era R.E.M. peeking through an ever-present-in-the-distance hum of feedback – it's a gorgeous song on an angry record full of rich imagery and rocking tunes that demand and capture your attention.
Filthy Friends have made a record to remind us all what music can aspire to.
Listen to: Emerald Valley, Pipeline, Hey Lacey