Mississippian John Barrett has an approach to music that’s as studied as it is snotty: once he’s cleaned the scum off rock’s most petulant hoodlums – the Cramps, the Stooges – he dresses them with embittered, adolescent rallies against the masses, adding his own stamp on the resulting racket via his bratty drawl: “It always seems hollow, all those things you do,” he sneers in the heavy thump of Sin is in 10. Elsewhere, there’s giant, latterday rock akin to Royal Blood (a reference likely to make him shudder) but its highlight comes in the form of the cleverly distorted, Sonic Youth-inspired Lose My Mind – Barrett’s most grown-up effort yet. Overall, BDoD’s fifth album tends to rehash the typical traits of rebellious guitar music, and while Barrett may not join the ranks of the titans he mimics, there’s no harm in letting another punk delinquent rattle on amid the din of the dull.
