3 out of 5

Label: Jajaguwar

Produced by: Boe Weaver

I’ll fully allow that my tastes haven’t developed an appreciation for 70s rock such that I can effectively play Name The Influence with any revival rock band. I’ll hear the era, and can maybe point out some obvious Zeppelin on Sabbath notes, but otherwise, nuance will escape me. That’s especially the case with a group like Wolf People, who would seem to run the gamut from rock to folk and hard-edged to harmonied, with the fuzzed-up production and tripped out cover art making Ruins quite a time trip. Unfortunately, my modern-leaning ears prefer for these neo-70s bands – Wolfmother, Black Mountain – to come out sounding like they own their sound; I want to be able to identify them and not just the nostalgia. While Wolf People are quite a talent, with Jack Sharp’s soulful vocals carrying across both badass riffs and flute work, the group ably bounding between the head-banging rock of the opening tracks, the psychedelia of the various Kingfisher tracks / reprise, and the more grooving and folksy moments spread throughout, the whole thing starts to sound more like a showcase for these varying genre nods than an album by a band. For this reason, while I think one’s ears will lean toward their preferences – I like heavier stuff, so the deliciously raw distortion on the first few tracks gets me going – the overall mix tends to fall a bit flat in the long run.

Other reviews are much more favorable on this, though, and are able to name all those cool groups I can’t identify, so undoubtedly I have dumb tastes.