Wyldlife - Year of the Snake

Okay, kids! We've got ourselves a good old-fashioned killer rock record! Of course I love lo-fi DIY as much as the next guy. But being a child of the '70s and '80s, I'm still a huge believer in well-produced, hook-laden rock and roll that would be all over the radio in a perfect world. Wyldlife has been a top band in the land of real rock and roll for almost a decade now. But with its new album Year of the Snake (out on Wicked Cool Records), the New York foursome has delivered its best and most stylistically varied album yet.

I love hearing bands grow their sound over time, and here Wyldlife shows a considerable progression without straying too far from its roots in glam-punk and power pop. Sure, there are songs like "Deathbed" and "Get Well" that are exactly what you'd expect from Wyldlife and guaranteed to satisfy. When it comes to catchy pop tunes with a gritty rock and roll edge, Dave and Sam can still write 'em as well as anyone. If you just listened to the first three tracks of Year of the Snake, you might assume that the whole album will be business as usual for Wyldlife. But then the record begins to take off in new and interesting ways. "Kiss and Tell" puts a New York twist on '90s Brit-pop. "Automatic" steps back a decade further into the heyday of U.K. new wave/post-punk. "Sacre Bleu" sounds like the best song The White Stripes never wrote. "Keeping Up with C.T." is a more than credible stab at country rock. I think what I enjoy about this album the most is that finds Wyldlife pulling itself in opposite directions and winning on both ends. "Crime of the Scene" and "Tulsa Superstar" are the purest pop songs the band has ever done. The title track, on the other hand, is the most ferociously cranking rocker of the group's career: a full dive into thundering anthem territory that has my inner headbanger screaming in delight. And to take it a step further, closing number "The Falcon" is the sort of full-on epic rock song that hardly anybody writes with a straight face these days. It was a bold move to attempt something so grandly over-the-top as this. But holy shit, these guys totally pull it off! Far from a mere curiosity, "The Falcon" is one of the highlights of the album.

Year of the Snake is one of those rare cases where I'm pleasantly surprised by a band I was already a huge fan of. There are enough signature Wyldlife moments here to keep the core fans happy. But there are plenty of surprises as well, and none of them run contrary to what you loved about the band in the first place. This is Wyldlife's strongest batch of songs to date, and every time I play the record I find myself going nuts on air drums and air guitar. The great rock album may be a rare species in 2020, but it's far from extinct.



-L.R.

https://wyldlifewcr.bandcamp.com/album/year-of-the-snake
https://wyldlife.bandcamp.com/album/year-of-the-snake-4
https://www.facebook.com/wyldlifeband
https://www.facebook.com/WickedCoolRecords