White Reaper – White Reaper Does It Again
★★★
“My little brother just discovered rock ‘n’ roll / There’s a noise in his head and it’s out of control / He no longer listens to A-sides / He made me a tape of bootlegs and B-sides / And every song, every single song on that tape sounds the same / Why don’t our parents worry about us? / Why don’t our parents worry about us?”
-Art Brut
Sometimes people will say of certain bands “every song sounds the same” and you’ll have to leap to said band’s defense, pointing out the subtle intricacies of the band’s sound to show that they are, in fact, diverse.
White Reaper is not that band.
White Reaper Does It Again is 33 minutes of mile-a-minute garage punk, like Bass Drum Of Death on, uh, more amphetamines and peppered with diabetes-inducing keyboard lines to separate it from the Segall-inspired pack. Every song is pretty much exactly like “Make Me Wanna Die”, the hard-charging, drum-driven opener that starts the pyrotechnics immediately. Each one has a little hook that keeps it fresh, although only “Last 4th Of July” and “Wolf Trap Hotel” last beyond the next sugar crash. There are times when the tube-produced reverb threatens to drown the band out, but that’s par for the course for garage rock these days and White Reaper manages it admirably. The album is nothing particularly special, but it does what it does with style and strength, and sometimes that’s all you need.
Structures Capable Of Joy 