Between the band name and album title, it's easy to assume that
Alone at 3am are just another bunch of whiny emo kids and that
City Out of Luck is full of passive-aggressive "waaah, I'm so sensitive!" songs like seemingly hundreds of other debut albums from the last ten years. Therefore,
City Out of Luck is a most pleasant surprise, because this is a good old-fashioned, blue-collar indie rock record. Maybe it's just because the young quartet is from Cincinnati, OH, but the most immediate point of comparison to these gruff but heartfelt, guitar-heavy rockers is the
Afghan Whigs. Lead singer Max Fender (that can't be his real name) is no
Greg Dulli -- the chorus of the barroom rocker "Whiskey and Gin" rhymes the title phrase with "wash away my sins," and there are, one cringes to report, songs called "Sleep When I'm Dead" and "Catch Me If You Can" -- but he and the band work a similar blend of the
Replacements and the
Rolling Stones, with occasional traces of the pure pop balladry of '90s-vintage alt-rockers like the
Goo Goo Dolls and the
Gin Blossoms on tracks like the mostly acoustic closer "Soldered." So there's nothing at all new about
City Out of Luck, but this sound isn't nearly as omnipresent as it was a decade or so before, and there's something refreshing about this unapologetically retro throwback. ~ Stewart Mason