The Silos – Florizona – Blue Rose – BLU DP0545 - ***

In 1987, Rolling Stone declared The Silos America's Best New Band. A quarter of a century on the wider world remains unconvinced, the group carry the ‘Big In Germany' curse, and Florizona's sleeve depicts the American Dream as an airbrushed fantasy. Walter Salas-Humara's romantically wrecked voice growls lyrics indulging the usual Alt Country ennoblement of blue collar booze-hounds, but The Silos' streamlined punk bar band sound drives the sentiments home. Drive-by Truckers mine this same seam with a more palatable dispassion, but the small town dope dealer's delusional interior monologue, the optimistically upbeat Teenage Prayer, strikes a universal truth.

(24/7/11)