Blur the Line
The third Those Darlins record opens with a drunk shower in a “shit hotel.” But it doesn’t stay clean for long: “Flowing these juices/The weed has induced us,” Jessi Darlin sings a couple of songs later on “That Man.” Since starting out as trashy, fun-loving cowpunks, the twogirl/two-guy Murfreesboro, Tennessee, band has gone further toward gnarled garage rock with each album. Some of the Darlins’ loose sense of humor has been lost along the way, but it’s been replaced by a seductive bite that goes well with their lupine guitar ooze. “Western Sky,” a rejection of “civilized noise,” adds another wrinkle to their sound: shambling Meat Puppets-like prettiness that stretches out beyond the red-rock horizon.