Sarah Shook and the Disarmers - Years (2018)

Her sound is a sneering fusion of punk-rock autonomy and say-it- like-it-is country from the classic era, paired with a timeless vocal warble and tons of attitude."" -Rolling Stone Country. When Sidelong, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers' debut album, was released in early 2017, it quickly earned kudos for its blast of fresh, fierce honesty and sly wit. It was a welcome new voice in a genre too often mired in the staid and conventional. Years solidifies the point: Sarah Shook & the Disarmers have moved from getting people's attention to commanding it. Inspired by artists such as the Sex Pistols, Elliott Smith and Hank Williams, Sarah sings with confidence, control, and a hint of menace. The Disarmers match her on every track. At its pounding heart, Years crackles with a pointedly contemporary and relevant take on the outlaw spirit. Built around the buoyant pedal steel of Phil Sullivan, and the post-punk rattle and Live at San Quentin hum of Eric Peterson's guitar, there are echoes of Nikki Lane and Merle Haggard as much as Ty Segall. Its home is the ragged-but- real honky tonk, not the bro-country ""honky tonk."" As Sarah herself tells it, ""This record is about finding a way. A way through exhaustion, depression, betrayal, hangover after hangover, upper after downer after upper, fight after never- ending fight. It's about picking yourself up and dusting yourself off after years of being trampled and beaten down, jutting your chin out, head high, after they've done their worst, and saying, ""Still here."" This record is shouting ""f*** you I do want I want"" from the rooftops to the mother******g cosmos.