This is smooth ride down the country path, with solid vocals and bucket-loads of acoustic tastiness. Lead vocalist and guitarist Christopher Lichti is a well-known face around the pub music scene, having played with the likes of Cash Savage and The Last Drinks and Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders. This is an album that makes you want to just get in the car and drive across country, watch sunsets while drinking whiskey and muse about the meaning of life.
If It Ain’t Killing You It’s Sure Killing Me is a sure-fire sing-a-long winner (even if it is a little on the very dark side) and has a suitably bizarre, hideously violent and quirky film-clip that you should check out on YouTube immediately.
The majority of the songs have a pretty downbeat vibe, but the heartbreak is so strong and true that they become impressive rather than depressing, the best example being Staring out at Nothing. But not all the songs are quite as despondent, with Ain’t a Bad Man and At the End definitely showing a more upbeat ‘tude. Lichti is joined by Mick Hansby (electric guitar, vocals), Callum Preston (drums, percussion), and Graveyard Train’s Josh Crawley (lapsteel guitar).
I hope this album is just the start of something beautiful for Eaten By Dogs, because that’s what it is: beautiful.
BY ISABELLE ODERBERG
Best Track: If It Ain’t Killing You It’s Sure Killing Me vs Staring out at Nothing
If You Like These, You’ll Love This: Anything alt-country or thereabouts
In A Word: Countrylovin’
