3 out of 5

Produced by: Ben Verellen

Label: Deathwish

I don’t know what it is about the ‘supergroup’ tag that – cause or effect – seems to limit the so-deemed band; any given “featuring members of X, Y, and Z!” that’s not billed as a new act but rather the aforementioned term never seems to really emerge as its own thing, no matter how many albums happen.  It doesn’t make ’em not good – Narrows inherently effing rock, and I love the hardcore, mathy get-together applied to a punky template – but I never really think of the group when I’m in the mood for heavy duty rock.  If they float through my playlist, I’m jazzed, but otherwise, dangit, I tend to forget they existed.

This 7″ doesn’t change that, given that it opens with a track that should be a freakin’ all-star that the group just cuts out on at the two minute mark, right when Jodie Cox and/or Ryan Frederiksen start blazing away on the riffage.  It’s like the group read my supergroup complaint above and decided to laugh at me right when I was about to deem them my new favorite.  Track 2 (Crooked Tongues) is a more complete picture, existing halfway between punk rock as fronted by Botch’s yellster and then more stoner, devil-horns rockin’, though it lacks a distinctive riff or energy; Track 3 (The Touch Test) makes good on all this promise, though, leaning into a deep groove of bass and distortion for a building 4 minute rocker.