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Oct 22, 2019 Web Exclusive By Michael James Hall

Great bands with multiple songwriters and vocalists aren’t exactly commonplace—yet, on their fourth full-length, Lookout Low, Chicago’s painfully-named Twin Peaks make it look, if not easy, then like a whole lot of rock ‘n’ roll fun.

Cadien Lake James’ shifts upfront are the most sonorous for sure, and though limited to two tunes here they’re both retro delights, with “Dance Through It” a surprisingly earnest disco-funk workout that contrasts with the more knockabout Paul Westerberg-in-a-barroom-brawl of Clay Frankel’s title track, which has the band sounding a little more like the feisty garage rock fuckers that recorded Sunken back in 2013.

Yet at times, as on Colin Croom’s “Laid in Gold,” which borrows a classic riff wholesale, their sepia-tinted Americana is hugely enjoyable but painfully derivative; at other, less engaging times, they end up sounding more like a poorly angled throwback, as on “Better Than Stoned,” which strangely comes across as a little juvenile on record but, happily, is an absolute blast live.

Clay Frankel throws up a Faces rocker with a genuinely unexpected, hugely theatrical hook that surely serves as the album’s unexpected highlight on “Under a Smile” but flops with the R.E.M.-lite of “Oh Mama.”

By the time we roll around to Croom’s “Ferry Song” you’ll either be having a high ol’ time or be entirely tired of the regular nods to The Band and retro-rock in general that color the album in honey-golds and browns.

Lookout Low is an enjoyable sojourn and gives the guys a fresh new batch of big tunes to air during their frankly incredible live shows. Closing up with Jack Dolan’s “Sunken II” and the wonderful lines “For all the creatures in an empty house/I wanna party when the sun goes down” it’s an album that keeps it pretty simple, staves off the sadness with a hearty riff or two and delivers old-fashioned fun by the ferry-load. (www.twinpeaksdudes.com)

Author rating: 6.5/10