DESTROY BOYS

Funeral Soundtrack #4 (Hopeless)

Sacramento alty-punky band Destroy Boys have been treading the boards for nearly a decade and aren’t quite yet in their mid-twenties. They give it the old this-is-the-album-we’ve-always-wanted-to-make chat in relation to Funeral Soundtrack #4 (which is indeed their fourth), and presumably have time on their side to keep chasing that rainbow on future albums, but if Destroy Boys never again have everything come together just so, as on here, they should still go to sleep happy.

Combining spiky punk energy, oversized alt-rock riffs, impeccably polished production and intermittent, generally more contemplative-sounding sections sung in Spanish by Alexia Roditis, over a brisk 30 minutes Funeral Soundtrack #4 reminds this listener of Hole circa Celebrity Skin, the Pixies, Paramore, Be Your Own Pet and Placebo.

There’s a dual vocal feature for Kat Moss and Marisa Dabice, respective vocalists of Scowl and Mannequin Pussy, on the album’s penultimate song You Hear Yes. Its lyrical topic of male harassment is given extra heft by the cumulative delivery, and also invites one to uphold Destroy Boys as a group who could (like those two) end up meaning a lot to a lot of people, bridging under and overground in the process. I’m an avowed convert to this band! Come join…

words NOEL GARDNER