3 out of 5

Label: Lonely Voyage Records

Produced by: Adam Edwards

There’s a lot here, and the majority of it is so, so much fun. And after going through instrumental rock trio Lost in the Riots’ debut, Stranger in the Alps, multiple times, I think that’s the only reason I couldn’t quite get to calling it an all-timer of a release: the recording stops just shy of hitting at the gut, and remains, pretty much solely, a good time. …And obviously that’s not a bad thing, it just prevents the tracks from sticking around much longer than when you’re listening to them.

But what remains impressive is that the group zips up and redistributes so many different styles of the scene as their own particular hodgepodge; often with instrumental rockers I’m able to trace it back to stuff that goes heavy (e.g. Pelican), stuff that focuses on rock (e,g. Fucking Champs), and stuff that likes to be pretty (e.g. Godspeed!, Mogwai), and excepting the few bands that have kind of made it out of some initial rounds of mimicry to establish their own sound, a ton of intrumentalers keep reminding me of X or Y, to the extent that I just want to listen to X or Y instead. Lost in the Riots instead don’t run from these comparisons, and by doing so, prove able to kind of summarize them in their own way. It’s a little underwhelming at first, as the group kind of sits in a comfortable bit of riffage, but once they break out some metal chugga chuggas on the opening title track, you know you’ve found something special.

At the same time, I don’t want to mislead that this is a mish-mash: the group is absolutely focused on hooks and rock, and every track manages a bit of toe-tapping melody, if not from the start, then soon after they’ve dropped the formative elements into the song. And the showiness is subtle, but definitely there, not necessarily rubbing time changes or wild solos in our faces – the tracks are smooth as heck, making it easy to overlook how stop-on-a-dime some of the switch-ups are, dropping into a funkier beat or going super heavy for a verse or two. This, again, does kind of work against the band in a way – perhaps zeroing in on a style would’ve allowed the songs to push over into more definitive singles – and I’d say the attempts at yelly vocals on Heartfelt Wolf poke at shtick a little too hard, but in the moment of any given track, it is… a lot of fun.