Marah - Angels of Destruction

Marah make meat and potatoes comfort rock, but not in the adult contemporary easy listening sense. It's comfortable because they sound like that pub band playing familiar songs you can't quite place but know you like. For the most part, it's old fashioned blues-rock that doesn't get distracted from the essential parts. Singer David Bielanko sounds wise and world weary as he crafts a series of vivid images and the band sounds effortless on this, their seventh record. Marah shine brightest on Santos De Madera, a piano-driven track with a tremendously hummable chorus that could almost masquerade as a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah effort. Songbirdz is a soulful acoustic based ditty with a gracefully complex arrangement of piano, guitar, organ and bassoon. This is a solidly foot tapping effort, though it only rarely breaks out of its everyman reassurance to achieve anything memorable. [Tobias Kahn]