Some bands are put on this earth to rock, and Australia’s You Am I has been dutifully shaking things up for more than two decades. The group has racked up serious Aussie music awards, toured with the likes of Sonic Youth and The Rolling Stones, and earned the deep faith of legions of fans—all while eluding arena-headlining status here in the U.S. On its ninth studio album (oddly self-titled, as if the band needs further introduction), You Am I seems intent on proving it's more than its reliable Who-meets-The Replacements, jam-kicking self. The album is almost evenly divided between moody, quieter tunes (where you feel the monsters lurking within) and the booze’n’sweat powerhouses we love. The slow-burning single “Shuck” falls in the middle, with the adrenalin-pumping “Pinpricks,” a stomper called “The Ocean,” and rockers like the Westerberg-flavored “Right This Time” on one side, and the summery “Lie and Face the Sun” and the surprisingly sultry “Trigger Finger” on the other, along with restrained, atmospheric numbers like “We Hardly Knew You."
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