City In The Country: A Brief Review Of The New Album From The Howling Hex (Neil Hagerty Of Royal Trux)

It's shocking how listenable this new album from The Howling Hex is. Oh, it's scuzzy as shit, of course, but it's easily the most tuneful thing Neil Hagerty's ever touched. Using this solo (sort of) project to pursue sounds that are only slightly different than those he's mapped out with Royal Trux, Hagerty has revived The Howling Hex name to serve up Knuckleball Express. Out on Friday via Fat Possum, the release delivers the kind of riffs we heard on those major label Trux records, but which sound a bit more refined here.

"Lies" cranks, but "Mr. Chicken" is elegant (in spots) and complicated. Helped immeasurably by the sweet voice of Nicole Lawrence on this one, the song is likely to shock anyone who came in on Cats and Dogs, for example. [The 2010 reissue of that album was reviewed by me here.] Elsewhere, while "Rootbeer Mother" has a title to kill for, it's a slight bit of acid rock, while "City in the Country" is shockingly catchy. This for me is the centerpiece of the album.

If at times on Knuckleball Express it seems like someone went back and mined the Royal Trux back-catalog, took the best riffs, and made them more palatable, that's great. This Howling Hex album has the same kinds of charms as those Trux releases, but if it's easier to get into, so what? The way I look at is, Thurston Moore could rip your head off with a riff in Sonic Youth but then he occasionally made more accessible things too, like 1995's Psychic Hearts. If you want to call this one Neil Hagerty's Psychic Hearts, that doesn't sound like a bad thing to say, you know?

And the addition of Nicole Lawrence to Hagerty's arsenal has allowed the musician to explore new territory, as evidenced by "Heavy Curtains", one of the best things here on Knuckleball Express. The fuzzy guitar-licks are all over this track, as they are on nearly everything on this album, but the song is remarkably direct and melodic. And if "Share a Name" is downright lovely, I take that as a sign that Neil Hagerty has mastered his art in such a way that he was able to make music like this in the first place, music that acknowledges his past while progressing into something else. Because there's no doubt that Knuckleball Express is a Neil Hagerty record, even as your head might be spinning by how absolutely melodic and accessible so much of this is.

Knuckleball Express is out on Friday via Fat Possum.

[Photo: Fat Possum Records]