Brothers Bill and Matt Pucci ride their Americana down easy, a Seventies-styled folk with a string band bent. Sour Bridges’ fourth LP flies a bit more focused than the local quartet’s previous eclectic turns, though not necessarily much deeper. Most notably, “Scrapyard Boys” bounces with a poppy turn and “Do Ya” torques three-part harmonies into a back porch stomp, but their pinched nasal twang and playfulness too often veer into a squirming hokeyness that rarely strikes as sincere. In their best moments, the boys shade toward the balladry of Mandolin Orange or Mipso, but also manage to unravel them, as with the piercing, awkward chorus wail that wrecks an otherwise sharp “Ozona Breakdown.” Great moments still surface, even if buried in the patchwork of ramshackle licks and cheesy yelps.
This article appears in August 16 • 2019.
