Mclusky Do Dallas

Amazon.com

If you’re tired of lowest-common-denominator punk bands, McLusky Do Dallas is the album you’re looking for. The incendiary British trio invites comparisons with everyone from Nirvana to the Fall. They specialize in the short, sharp songs that clock in around two minutes, but go some way to reinventing the very viscera of punk rock. The opening track is a case in point, as an explosion of cymbals and nodule-inducing vocal ferocity invite comparisons with post-hardcore merchants Shellac discovering a catchy pop hook. (Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Shellac frontman Steve Albini is credited on production duties.) Raw, fearless songs land with terrifying consistency. The most fascinating track is “Fuck This Band,” a quiet meditation on the nature of rock music. Equal parts brains, brawn, and pure righteousness, McLusky Do Dallas is unstoppable. –Louis Pattison