Little Neon Limelight, Dranders

It’s difficult to pinpoint just what genre Houndmouth falls under. They’re by no means genre-less (that award goes to Shamir), but rather, they are an alternative Venn diagram of blues, folk, rock, country, western, and Americana that begs the question, WHAT STATE ARE THESE GUYS FROM?!!! (...it's Indiana.) Similarly, it’s also not all that easy to pinpoint who the leader of this band is. They all sing, and occasionally play multiple instruments. It’s an attribute I mentioned in a previous PoYB album review that I always like to see: making each member of the group indispensable.

Little Neon Limelight kicks off with the band’s best-known song, "Sedona." Lyrically, it establishes that this journey really isn’t going to be too heavy. They’re just some hipster kids doing their thing. They've seen some mild heartache and battled some personal demons, but mostly this album will just be full of the charming floozies and lovably sleaze-balls they encounter as they drift across the country in true Millennial fashion: broke, but not poor.

Early on, they prove they’ve nailed how to seamlessly flip musical styles on a whim, and not just track by track. In “15 Years,” the verses and/or refrains switch from Elvis, to country, and back again to rock. However, I didn’t love the faux audience sounds right before the stellar a cappella section. That actually might be my only substantial qualm with this album—too much of that echo-y, ad-libbed, background dialogue, like they’re supposed to be in a dive bar or a make-shift recording studio in someone’s bathroom. It’s fine in moderation, but they did it in some form on like, HALF the tracks.

We go on to get a variety of acts that range from toe-tapping jams to melancholy ballads. By the time we get to "My Cousin Greg," we’re re-introduced to the most underused vocalist (and only gal) of the group, Katie Toupin. Halfway through the song, this gorgeous female country voice pops in on lead vocals and I’m like, Oh yeah! Where’s she been? She’s the best! And THEN, we finally segue into...

..."GASOLINE." The best song on the album. So haunting. So ambiguous. Is it about addiction and codependency? Or then again, could it be a callback to the Jenny Gasoline character we met in "Black Gold"? They seem unrelated, but I can’t count out. And the BEST. DAMN. HARMONIES. Katie may be the star of this song, but those harmonies turn the group into an actual quartet.

Sometimes I feel like Houndmouth’s remarkable musicianship is beyond their message. They really have a bluesy heart, yet these kids haven’t suffered enough to tug at our heartstrings all that hard (with the exception of "Gasoline"). Regardless, Houndmouth knows how to jam, and I’d be hard-pressed to find an audience member that could feel alienated by their indelible sound.