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Angel Du$t

"Yak": A Collection Of Truck Songs

Written by: PP on 20/12/2021 15:24:01

With members of Trapped Under Ice and Turnstile in its roster, Angel Du$t started in the realm of equally innovative hardcore, where especially sophomore album "Rock The Fuck On Forever" stood out with its incredibly creative and fresh take on the genre. It essentially loaned passages from stoner rock, repackaged these into a hardcore format, and brought on a pop punk party vibe in the process. Since then, the band has selected an entirely different direction for the band, one that started on the stylistic polar opposite "Pretty Buff" two years ago and now culminates on "'Yak': A Collection Of Truck Songs".

If you thought Angel Du$t went soft on "Pretty Buff", you're in for another surprise. "Dancing On The Radio", for instance, is basically an indie rock song, although Tim Armstrong's (Rancid) cameo gives it an exotic vibe alongside the string instruments. "Fear Some" goes in the direction of theatrical pop-rock and a soundscape that feels totally foreign in an Angel Du$t context. What happened to the innovative approach to songwriting, guys?

The material throughout "Yak..." feels like standard fare radio rock with copious amounts of indie- and pop-rock replacing the swathes of hardcore laces. It's not even as fun as "Pretty Buff" was with its Presidents Of The United States Of America vibes. Instead, the band strolls along on a weird lane of acoustic guitars and ballads like "Love Is The Greatest". Other bands are doing this much better than Angel Du$t, whereas their previous output triumphed just about everything else out there.

Save for maybe "Big Bite" and the uptempo "Cool Faith" that reintroduces some of the bouncy rhythms of yesteryear despite its jangly guitars, there really isn't much here for previous fans of Angel Du$t. Sure, "Truck Songs" is a little heavier but it comes in as track eleven on a twelve-track album. As an effectively indie-pop album, "'Yak': A Collection Of Truck Sons" is a weird record that feels like is lost in between two entirely different audiences. At this point, you might as well start a new band because there's virtually nothing holding the first two and the last two releases together. Sadly the stylistic evolution is coupled with a drastic downturn in song quality.

Download: Big Bite, Cool Faith
For the fans of: The Lemonheads, Everclear, Weezer
Listen: Facebook

Release date 22.10.2021
Roadrunner Records