The Pack A.D - Funeral Mixtape

It's no secret that everyone in life - fathers, daughters, prime ministers and priests - get the blues. But it's a fact of music that it's mainly the boys singing the blues. Coming to help settle that score are The Pack A.D. Hailing from Vancouver, Canada, Becky Black and Maya Miller revisit old delta blues sounds on Funeral Mixtape, though the riffs and beats have been suitably updated (plugged in and turned up to 10) for the 21st century. As a blues two-piece operating in the contemporary music scene, it's almost too easy to give a comparison to the White Stripes or the Black Keys. However, it is fitting. Songs like Don't Have to Like You, Making Gestures and Build could've been lent to De Stijl, while Black's unrestrained hard rock/blues guitar evokes Dan Auerbach's fuzzy noodling. But The Pack's efforts here are not derivative as much as worthy of equal consideration. With her earnest and sultry vocals, Black recalls - or channels - Janis Joplin, and her high-pitched cry on Oh Be Joyful is a scream without strain, never losing sight of melody. While not quite a masterpiece, Funeral Mixtape demonstrates the proficiency of the duo, establishing that they know the rules of the game and are ready to play. [Jason Morton]