War Baby - Jesus Horse

Label: Bummer
Year: 2013

Total Nirvana worship, that I'm totally ok with. And maybe that has to do with the passage of time, because the bands that aped Nirvana back when Nirvana was still walking the Earth generally did a piss-poor job. They embarrassed themselves, and they soiled your local "alternative radio station" with their clumsy dynamics and faux-angst-sincere vocals.
War Baby sidesteps those pitfalls by taking what worked the first time around, and adding modern touches to it. The band Mannequin did the same thing, they too took the dark power pop of Nirvana and played up the messiness and noise. Mclusky did it as well, they played up the humor and playfulness of Nirvana and rode it all the way into the sunset.
So, not to belabor the whole Nirvana comparison (it's pretty hard not to), because War Baby deserve their own due, but if you find yourself waxing nostalgic for the glory years of Sub Pop and the "grunge sound" or maybe the big, fuzzed out sound of a band like Chavez, then you can't do much better than this one. It's warm and full and catchy and just the right amount of loud and ragged around the edges.
Highly recommended.

DL