#albumoftheday / REVIEW: WHITE REAPER: WHITE REAPER DOES IT AGAIN

White Reaper’s White Reaper Does It Again is the debut full-length album by the band, which hails from Louisville, Kentucky. And it’s a wild, motherfucking, non-stop party from start to finish. It’s a turbo-charged blend of classic Buddy Holly-era rock ‘n’ roll and vintage Ramones punk rock with (maybe) a tiny dash of old school hardcore thrown in like an espresso shot in your red eye. It’s the sort of album where you can put it on at a party and play the whole record without any complaints. Suffice to say that it’s the sort of album that only comes around once in a great while.

One of White Reapers strengths is that they somehow manage to sound instantly familiar, like a band you’ve heard many times before, and yet they also sound highly original as well. The magic happens for you within ten seconds of the ass-kicking opening song, “Makes Me Wanna Die.” I suppose that makes them rather accessible, but clearly they weren’t aiming for that when they made the album. This is wildly imaginative creativity let loose, not the sort of album where you can tell that a band sat around trying to remake Green Day’s Dookie. There isn’t any particular album that I can think of that White Reaper would have used as a blueprint. It’s obvious from the first time you hear them that they didn’t have one. Songs like “Makes Me Wanna Die” and “Pills” have as much flair and originality as colorful new, one-of-a-kind artwork on your wall. Clearly, they were aiming for up-tempo, kick ass rock music, but that’s about it, which is just plain awesome because you can tell they’re playing the music in their hearts here, the music that dripped out of them effortlessly like blood from a papercut. I’m not saying they didn’t work hard on the album, just that it doesn’t sound like they did. Songs like the chugging “Alone Tonight” and the surf-rock-sounding “Sheila” leap out at you like Jaws on a beach, doing what comes naturally and putting you on high alert in the process. What we’ve got here is a highly potent mix of caffeine pills and nicotine that’ll have you bouncing around so hard you’ll hit the ceiling. Now, that’s something to O.D. on.

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PHOTO: MICHAEL POWEL
PHOTO: MICHAEL POWEL

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