Lovedrug
The Sucker Punch Show

Review By Matt Conner

“Let it All Out,” the opening track on Lovedrug’s new album, is as prophetic as it is blistering. It’s a statement by a band ready to let its collective hair down and venture toward the sonic ideas kept at bay on its previous two releases. And the effort is all the better for it. The Sucker Punch Show showcases Lovedrug’s searing rock sound from beginning to end. Whether buoyed by jubilant piano or bounced by barroom riffs, the listener is taken on a non-stop exploratory journey. “Michael Shepard’s tenor seethes and haunts like none other on the dreamy “The Only One.” “Everybody Needs a Halo” lends the album its title and unsheathes classic rock riffs in rock opera fashion, while “The Dirtiest Queen” rides an alien spacecraft sample into a quirky, hypnotically dark track. Not all explorations lead to the promised land, but that’s not the issue. Ultimately The Sucker Punch Show reveals Lovedrug to be a band that continues to operate on its own terms.