David A - Lit (Mediavenger)

Florida’s David A, the artist formerly known as David Alpha, recently released his latest album Lit, a mix of indie rock and blues. A prolific musician, David A has managed to record his strongest and most cohesive album yet, partially because he used a smaller core of session musicians, and it sounds like the work of a unified collective. Influenced by the likes of Screaming Trees and Iggy Pop, David A’s first album in eight years is intended as a reminder of the power and importance of rock, but it’s delivered with an oblique, outsider’s perspective that stops the album from ever becoming generic or mundane.

There’s a loose and ragged feel to the performances, not entirely dissimilar to Paul Westerberg’s later solo recordings as Grandpaboy. The opening track “If I’m So Strange” sets up the rest of the album perfectly with a wall of heavy, chugging guitars. The great thing about David A here is that he never rushes his songs and his band never overcomplicates matters either. “Balustrade” is fairly straightforward and repetitive bluesy hard rock, but this is exactly what makes it awesome as the riff hypnotizes and thunders along, while “Eastertown” verges spectacularly into sloppy punk territory. Suffice it to say, Lit is a fantastic album that bridges genres and styles effortlessly, and it will easily appeal to both nitpicky blues heads and punk purists alike.