Local H

After seven albums over 21 years, Scott Lucas is still ripping out grunge riffs with fury. Deceptively, the lead track on Twelve Angry Months, a concept album, with each song named for a month of the year following a harsh break-up, opens with the rustic melancholy twang of acoustic and slide guitar accompanied by Lucas’s tender vocal plea to his jilted lover. Quick to dispel any notion of softening up, the track kicks in with a slamming barrage of power chords. February is represented by "Michelle,” a song confidently bridging the gap between the Eels and Nirvana, its grunge bombast tempered by an endearing pop edge that’s sometimes a little shy to show itself on Twelve Angry Months. Lucas and drummer Brian St. Clair dwell on a dark little vamp that flows from funky to aggressively tribal on "White Belt Boys,” where Lucas sings, "Yeah, I hope you have a lonely life” to either his ex or possibly the emo douche who stole her. Another solid release in a solid career for Local H and a good reminder of what was good about rock music in the ’90s.