Buffalo Killers: Heavy Reverie

Occupying a sonic space between the Black Crowes and the Black Keys, Ohio’s Buffalo Killers count both Chris Robinson and Dan Auerbach as fans. The former asked the band out on tour, while the latter produced the band’s 2008 album, Let It Ride. The Buffalo Killers’ fifth album, Heavy Reverie, firmly lives up to its title. Conjured melodies worthy of the Byrds and Matthew Sweet fill spaces between Rust Belt blues (“Dig On In”), stoned grooves (“Louder than Your Lips”), and reserved country processionals (“January”), rounding out a protean album of crunchy jams. Composed of tales borne by “days inside the womb” in which wisdom is bestowed by a relative who’s “a better junkie than you,” one would not likely associate Buffalo Killers with “pretty” music, but slough off the calloused riffs and pedal steel accents and Heavy Reverie reveals itself to be a collection of disguised power-pop songs that worm their way into your feet and brain.