Little Hurricane: homewrecker

Little Hurricane
homewrecker
Unknown Breakthrough

Little Hurricane may be in need of an image change. To look at the dilapidated house on the cover of homewrecker, to see the boots and fancy, slightly antiquated close Tone and CC — the band’s two members — wear on the inside cover, you might mistake them for a fey folk duo. But you’d be wrong to judge this book by its cover. Little Hurricane thumps with a bluesy rumble.

CC’s drums pound out simple but effective beats, while Tone’s guitar work buzzes and bottoms out in all the right spots. Songs like “Trouble Ahead” and the smoldering duet “Crocodile Tears” are sweaty barn-stompers and come off like a less eccentric, more Americana version of the White Stripes. They can get quiet during more fragile tunes like “Tear Bucket” but they never get overly precious. Sometimes they steer towards more straightforward indie rock, on the jangling “Haunted Heart” or the more subdued “Shortbread”, and in those moments they seem to lose their charm and become an anonymous rock band. Mostly, though, homewrecker is a tense and charged blues-rock record, one that stirs up quite a bit more than the band’s restrained name implies.

RATING 6 / 10