Australia’s Billy Roberts and the Rough Riders are back with their sophomore album, Go By Myself. Released earlier this month, the album is a follow up to 2014’s fantastic _The Last of the Originals_—a truly original and stylized debut. Back is Roberts vocal phrasing eerily reminiscent of Neil Young, while the lyrics which “deal with the breakdown of families and the toil of modern life,” are clearly influenced by the storytelling style of Bruce Springsteen. Overall, there is a strong rooted country rock feel to the album, and the attitude of the record is bleaker, and more pessimistic than before.
The production, compared to the band’s debut, is dense and heavy; only adding to the dark, smokey atmosphere. Songs such as “Driving” sound like Lou Reed fronting the E Street Band, because Springsteen’s lingering sense of hope is nowhere to be found. Other songs like “Who Do You Think You Are?” and “From The Ashes” are wonderfully sloppy and boozy, verging on truly raucous territory. Roberts is angrier than ever, sounding like the last man at the bar telling everyone what’s gone wrong with the world, and it makes Go By Myself one compelling listen.
