Bohannons - Luminary Angels (2017)

With their quite brilliant “Black Cross, Black Shield” record from a couple of years back, Marty and Matt Bohannon really pushed the boundaries of what we might call “southern rock” if we were being lazy.

A concept album of sorts, it dealt with the effects of terminal illness and looked death squarely in the eye.

But, as you should perhaps expect from a pair who have previously recorded with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, they don’t like to be typecast, but most certainly do like making challenging and interesting music.

Of course, there’s nothing worse than hearing a “challenging” record and finding that it is unlistenable rubbish, understandable only to those who made it in the first place – but do not fret, there is none of that here.

Instead, when they regrouped this time, to make their first album for Cornelius Chapel Records, (which is the new label started by Elliot McPherson of the Dexateens) and recruited a couple of new members Billy C. Robinson on bass and Mike Gaut on drums, they did so – evidently with a very clear vision as to what this album should sound like.

“Luminary Angels” comprises just nine songs, and with nothing too long either and the feel of the whole thing is of the rawness of their parent’s garage that they first started making records in as kids.

Even the cover – which shows the four with the type of haircuts not seen since Flock Of Seagulls (or at the very least the first Poison album) – harkens back to a bygone era and there is a Replacements type punkish feel about the glam slam stomp of “Ride The Roads”.

There is a suggestion that they really let their hair down throughout “….Angels “. “No Trouble Tonight” takes you downtown to break the law – and some searing lead guitar – as the album sets down its marker early on.

That said, these boys are too skilled not to throw in a couple of curveballs. The title track is the kind of dark balladry that could have come straight from their last album. “Smoke And Ashes” is a pure and simple love song but done in a really clever way, and “2000 Nuthin’” is a wonderful piece of sloganeering: “they gave us freedom just to take it all away,” goes its hook.

At its absolute best when it blurs the boundaries. “Vacation” for example, retains the rock n roll lip-curl, but adds some country style fiddle, as the character in the lyrics dreams and longs for the beach he’s only seen in the magazines.

And it’s this type of small town frustration that pervades The Bohannons songwriting: “Heart Go West” is the type of storytelling that Drive By Truckers do so well. “Dog Days” gets bonus points for starting with a guitar solo as if bursting to rock, while the closing “Big Mouth” does likewise but actually manages to begin and end with a crescendo, and its deliberate guitar is as heavy as anything they’ve ever done.

That, you suspect, was always the point of “Luminary Angels”. This is a different Bohannons. Not so different, though, that you wouldn’t recognise them and not so new that they’ve completely eschewed their past, but a band that very clearly wants to walk down new paths each time has done that here with fine results.