Darling Destroyer
ILA, 2017
9/10
The Austin outfit Leopold And His Fiction are equal parts garage rock, folk rock, and psyche-rock, as they bottle their furious formula into an incredible album of uncontainable energy.
“Cowboy” starts the album and makes an immediate impression with its bright vocals, propulsive drumming and soulful version of garage rock, and this continues to the stompin’, melodic approach of the ‘70s rooted “It’s How I Feel (Free)”, as well as the nearly gospel like rhythm of “I’m Caving In”.
Halfway through, “Ride” offers a quieter setting as calm percussion and warm piano complement the expressive vocals from Daniel James, while the thumping “Saturday” is a bluesy, garage rock rager made for festivities of the highest caliber.
Closer to the end, the horns are a nice touch on the R&B inflected “Flowers”, and “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” exits the listen loud and rowdy as a charged display of proto-punk populates the Bob Dylan cover.
A 4th album that sounds like it would have been birthed in Detroit decades ago, the feral riffs, heavy doses of fuzz and Motown nods make Darling Destroyer a stand out record in Leopold And His Fiction’s impressive catalog.
Travels well with: Ron Gallo- Really Nice Guys; Acid Dad- Acid Dad