Eleventh Day Dream – Works for Tomorrow

More roadhouse rattle from veteran Chicago first-wavers Eleventh Day Dream. Now on long player #13, and augmented by additional guitar (courtesy of Illinois-based Brit James Elkington), there’s certainly buzz and sweat behind Works for Tomorrow. Opener Vanishing Point – penned by co-vocalist Janet Bean – carries a prickly resolve that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Babes in Toyland setlist, whilst Cheap Gasoline’s duelling fretwork is all gumptious, bevelled momentum.

And yet such spikes are exception rather than rule, the majority of the ten tracks here (including those with Rick Rizzo at the mic) a little flat in how they reference their alt-rock Americana-isms. Stripped of onstage energy, the Pixies-flavoured power pop and bluesy, low-fi atonality suggest a perfunctory posture (also, best skip the cover of hippy anthem Snowblind, which turns up like a Jefferson Airplane tribute act shuttled in from some dodgy bierkeller). A fun record, for sure, but sometimes a listen needs a little more salt. [Duncan Harman]