Wussy – Attica!

If there’s one area where US music has always excelled, it’s depicting the dark underside to the nation’s sunny exterior. Country music exposes the sadness, pain and conflict that ensues when you sell people an individualist manifesto as an attainable dream, neglecting to mention the price of its likely failure; ditto the slackers of Generation X articulated – albeit obliquely – the directionless haze left when the aspirational baby-boomers fucked up their future.

The reason Wussy (Robert Christgau’s favourite band – © everything written about them ever) rule so hard is the unique way in which they conflate the two, their heart-on-sleeve Americana coated with layers of disorienting fuzz. Of their two equally-arresting vocalists, Chuck Cleaver’s the more vulnerable, as his cracked croon imbues the Yo La Tengo-esque To The Lightning with subtle drama. Lisa Walker, meanwhile, is pure romanticism encapsulated, making Home and the title track feel utterly irresistible.