The Boxing Lesson – Wild Streaks & Windy Nights (Self Released) I like big, dramatic rock if it’s guitar heavy and not so much on the orchestral tip. Where Richard Ashcroft went so terribly wrong after leaving Verve was that he forgot how great guitars are. Turn them UP and I will gladly follow your overwrought story into hell.
Austin, Texas’ own The Boxing Lesson seems to have learned their own lesson by employing massive guitar swells and heavy riffs to carry songs that could otherwise end up sounding like so much soggy eggs. There’s an uncomfortable reliance on synth patches that don’t quite hit the spooky post-neo-psychedelia of Kasabian—in fact, they edge a little too close to Aldo Nova in spots for my comfort—but they do know how to push their Pro-Co Turbo Rat to the limit.
This album won’t change your life but it will remind you to change your strings and turn up to eleven once in a while.