Album Review

Speakeasy's All Your New Favorite Songs

The phrase “quintessential bar rock” is thrown at bands for a number of reasons. It could be a nod to dirty, distorted guitars, loose drum beats and singer who sounds like he’s on his third shot of whiskey. Or, in the case of Speakeasy’s new album, All Your New Favorite Songs, quintessential bar rock is music that sets a soundtrack to a night out on the town. It’s something you can nod your head to while splitting your third pitcher with your friends at Brew Co. It’s music that gives you the urge to set up a game of ultimate Frisbee the following Sunday afternoon after the hangover wears off.

All Your New Favorite Songs clearly isn’t an album to change the way you look at music. It’s a sound you’ve heard many times before, but it’s comfortable and does the thinking for you. The bass and guitar travel together up and down familiar pentatonic riffs and glide into light, jazzy chords in the vein of a happier, post-heroin Stone Temple Pilots. And while the feel of the drum beats from song to song seem like 311 stuck on repeat, Speakeasy’s Ryan Fannin is no stranger to a drum kit. You have to listen carefully to what sounds like subtle, one-handed rolls on the snare hits and fills that command musicianship but don’t overtake the song.

Shawn Eckels and Marcus Chatman write lyrics and harmonies that make you feel out of place for not singing along. With lines like “I’m tired of working” or “You’ll never let it go,” it gives you an anthem and a reason to raise your glass. All Your New Favorite Songs is music built to and for the audience.

Choice spins: “The Bigger Picture,” “The Sky Is Falling”