Here comes Local H

Possibly the most underrated band in the world, Local H soldier on with a brave, hard-lived and completely rockin' new album that's unlikely to get nearly as much attention as their minor radio-hit cover of 'Toxic' did a few years ago. But those who prick up their ears to Twelve Angry Months will be rewarded with a fierce, smart break-up record that their contemporaries Chris Cornell, Scott Weiland and Jerry Cantrell would kill someone to write nowadays.


The twelve angry songs on the grunge band's new album represent twelve months in an excruciating post-break-up year that I hope wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. A lesser band would fall into emo or "Joe lies" trappings, but singer/songwriter/guitarist Scott Lucas and drummer Brian St. Clair have a noisy, powerful song cycle that's unabashedly mean-spirited--"Baby, could you do me a favor/Fall off of the earth and I'll see you later" croons Lucas on the opening track, and power-chord workout 'White Belt Boys' has an "I hope you have a lonely life" rejoinder that leads into an anthem-ready 'Shout at the Devil'-esque chorus.

The minor-key guitar intro that kicks off the album in 'The One with 'Kid'' (as in, "Where's my Pretenders record...the one with 'Kid,'" "Where's all my Kyuss records, you never liked them until you met me!") calls to mind a western movie showdown, and the album follows up with some of the best fight music you'll hear all year. The unguarded, embittered Lucas goes to war with new boyfriends ("BMW man,") new lovers ("Machine Shed Wrestling,") and his old sentiments ("Summer of Boats,") all with a heightened sense of the tunefulness that made him one of the most compelling songwriters in Chicago history. Rather than aim for the country fair and adult contemporary audiences that many of his former peers have targeted, Lucas packs a devastating punch into the hard-rocking standout "24 Hour Break-Up Session" or the blunt, seething "Jesus Christ! Did You See The Size Of The Sperm Whale?" But this isn't the Scott Lucas show--St. Clair hits with the force of Lars Ulrich and the timing of Dave Grohl, and on record it's even deadlier than it reads.



To pigeonhole the album as 12 months/12 songs would oversimplify it--each song has vivid, spirited and 3-D life of it's own. "Taxi-Cabs" sounds like a breather from the album's intensity until it drives into Travis Bickle territory, and the turbulent "Simple Pleas" goes from Lucas' attempts to be reasonable to defeated screams of "I always said you were too good/And now you believe/I think always knew that you were gonna leave/But I can't let go...I can't let go." The almost nine-minute closer "Hand to Mouth" is one of the album's most affecting tracks, building into a melodic final chorus that clocks out with the same intro that the preceded the entire album. It's the only orderly moment on Twelve Angry Months, and Lucas' slugfest with his ex, himself and breakup record conventions ends with one clear winner.