The new Twin Peaks album, Lookout Low, out on Friday via Grand Jury Music, is an example of the diminishing returns of pursuing something wholeheartedly. While this band started out sounding a whole lot like Slanted & Enchanted-era Pavement, they have, over the course of the last few years, chased a dream of somehow turning into The Rolling Stones, circa 1972. While this devotion to a hoary rock trope has yielded a few winning tracks, it's also yielded (just like it did for Mick and Keith and crew) a lot of filler. Lookout Low is a fine album, but it's one that's unlikely to inspire the sort of fiery enthusiasm that this band's debut did a handful of years ago.
Produced by Ethan Johns, Lookout Low bears a faint resemblance to Kings of Leon, a band Johns has worked with. And, at times, like on spry opener "Casey's Groove", Twin Peaks achieve a kind of graceful approximation of something like Kings. Elsewhere, on "Better Than Stoned", there's little that would indicate that this was the same group that put out "Strawberry Smoothie" a few years back. Instead, this number and the folk-leaning "Unfamiliar Sun" suggest, if not maturity, a greater appreciation from these players for Americana. There's a slacker rock charm about "Dance Through It", the Stones-y single, and lots to love on the title cut here with its echoes of Faces classics, but lots of Lookout Low didn't immediately grab me the way I expected it to. Still, at least on numbers like "Oh Mama" the fellas seem to be looking to some good stuff for inspiration, especially since the cut echoes Rod and the Faces as well as even early Aerosmith. Lots of Lookout Low sort of hits a similar groove, but hopefully the band can forgive fans who wanted more that roared like Wild Onion.
Lookout Low is out on Friday via Grand Jury Music.
More details on Twin Peaks via the band's official website, or their official Facebook page.
[Photo: Cooper Fox]