During some of the better moments of
All This Time
, the second album from Ohio's
the Heartless Bastards
, one gets the feeling that this trio could be the Midwestern cousin of
PJ Harvey
-- not
Polly Harvey
the singer and songwriter -- but the bone-shattering power trio named for the bandleader on
Dry
and
Rid of Me
. While frontwoman
Erika Wennerstrom
doesn't particularly sound like
Polly
, she conjures up a similar degree of gale-force vocal impact and plays a not-dissimilar variety of dirty, elemental electric guitar, while her rhythm section (
Kevin Vaughn
on drums and
Mike Lamping
on bass) calls up a massive Wall of Sound and energy behind her. But a few spins of
makes it clear the similarity between
is a matter of similar musical philosophy rather than conscious emulation, and that
Wennerstrom
has a flinty, down-to-earth lyrical perspective that reflects the experiences of someone who was born and raised in Ohio (and still works a day job when not on the road).
makes a powerful virtue of its muscular, no-frills production, and
Brian Niesz
's engineering, which allows the individual elements to stand out while still coalescing into a unified and gloriously dangerous whole.
swings with the force of a heavyweight champ, but there's an unpretentious intelligence, compassion, and cautious hope in these ten songs, and
bring them across with an elegance that belies their muscle; they know how to say a great deal with a little, and that's a large part of what makes this album worth hearing. ~ Mark Deming