A Seattle trio who are keeping the tradition of aggressive, raw, and animated sounds from their hometown alive, Stereo Creeps has been actively around for half a decade now. Sucks comes highly anticipated after several curious singles and cassette release in 2016.
“Hide & Peek” gets the album off to a rowdy and dissonant start with a mashing of noisy punk rock sounds, and “They’re All The Same” thumps and shakes with a dirty rock ‘n’ roll spirit and a catchy chorus that The Rye Coalition would admire. Elsewhere, “Hot Apartment!” is a quick display of thundering, calculated energy, while “Thought & Prayers” ends side A with the powerful, Old School punk nods on a very topical anthem.
Side B does some damage, too. “Ancient Accents” starts out knee-deep in grunge territory before the very brief and fuzzed out restraint of “Not Going Anywhere.” Deeper cuts yield the sludgy Black Sabbath-esque meets angular indie rock of “Mel’s Hole,” and “Have I Been Erased?” ends the pummeling with a stadium rock rager that could gain the band worldwide fame in the same way that everyone adores Queens Of The Stone Age.
Interesting enough, both sides are themed here. Side A, “The Party,” is very much the quicker, more deliberate portion, while Side B, “The Hangover,” has the outfit manipulating their skill with much precision and exploratory ideas.
Although you’ll hear traces of Soundgarden, Radiohead, The Ramones, The Melvins, David Bowie, and Sonic Youth on this record, ultimately Stereo Creeps is their own animal. This is a beast of an album that’s artistic, heavy, loud, upfront and often intimidating but with much intrigue.
For the vinyl crowd, the pressing of 300 on translucent jet blue marble wax is just about sold out, which is the only way to get a physical copy of this one anyway, so you better move quick.
