I absolutely love garage rock. The fuzziness of the guitars, the boom-boom-pop of the drums, the chuggy bass lines, the overdriven vocals, the upscale lo-fi ness of it all. Crafting a great garage rock song is a whole helluva lot harder than it actually looks— there’s a fine line to walk in both recording and production to get that sound just right, and an even finer line to walk with the vocal melodies. You want some sugary sweet hooks but they need some edge to them.
You Deserve Love by White Reaper does just that. It’s pretty much a perfect garage rock album front to back. It sounds as if The Strokes and Thin Lizzy decided to join forces and let loose with MGMT producing it. Tony Esposito’s vocals are a definitive example of how non-traditional singers can sound absolutely stellar in the right format (an ethos I am also forced to live by) and I have to say whatever vocal processing they have going on his voice needs to be a plug-in I can access like yesterday. If you work with or know anyone in that production studio please hit me up. I’m dying to dial it in.
And then there’s the rest of the band who also play their roles perfectly. Drummer Nick Wilkerson has such a lovely swing to his playing and leverages the ride cymbal prominently, which further underscores that natural groove that gets your head moving. Bassist Sam Wilkerson is largely content to hold down the fort and that’s perfect considering how much color keyboardist Ryan Hater injects into each song— he adds a richness and depth that would be lacking if the band was just a four-piece, and helps tie up some loose ends in each spot he’s needed.
And then there’s the guitars, led by lead guitarist Hunter Thompson alongside the rhythm playing of Tony Esposito. As I mentioned off the top White Reaper sounds like a cross between The Strokes and Thin Lizzy, with the latter clearly being a massive influence. Thin Lizzy’s 1976 album Jailbreak is an all-time classic for guitar players everywhere and pioneered the dual-guitar attack playing harmonized leads together in unison. White Reaper uses that approach throughout the entirety of You Deserve Love and it is awesome every time.
I’ve been a huge fan of these guys since I first heard them on a playlist at a New American cafe in San Francisco called Fable, and have consistently come back to this album every few months or so ever since. This is one of those full lengths I’ll never be able to get out of my head.
Standout Songs: “Ring”, “Might Be Right”, “Real Long Time”, “Eggplant”
