Consumer Guide Album

Fox Green: Holy Souls [self-released, 2022]
Where their 2020 The Longest April was solid with impressive highlights, the songwriting on this unmistakably southern, utterly humanistic straight rock album from Arkansas tends spectacular verbally if less striking tunewise or jamwise. The lucky thing or maybe it was planned that way is that Wade Derden's mild, unaccented vocal affect suits the decency of the lyrics perfectly, turning them into something radiant from "I saw your daddy in a dream/His eyes were laser beams/He was a gamma ray" to "He's got sweet, sweet rims/And he's got you, he's got you," with the likes of "My baby is on the jail app/For everyone to see/My baby is on the jail app/But she's still my baby to me" and "Like two virgins in a sleeping bag/Tender and reckless in our love" biding their time in between. Eager to believe there's hope for America, not to mention Americana? Try this. A-