The Pet Rocks

The Pet Rocks – ‘Easy Tiger’

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Wayward Ways is the brilliant second album from The Pet Rocks. Apparently recorded as far back as 2006 and released a decade after their debut, it thankfully saw the light of day toward the end of last year.

Sounding like something of Beck’s last album with added slacker-rock nonchalance, Easy Tiger is one of the best Australian songs I’ve heard all year. The verse kicks along with a funky strut before the glorious chorus, which contrasts the rush of the eight-note instrumentation with singer Nick Kriesler’s warm croon begging the title character to “take it easy.”

The album as a whole stands up incredibly well and often enters less immediate, funky musical spaces than the pop offering above. Through varying passages of bassline grooves, walls of distortion, jaunty piano, and falsett, the album is bound together through an unwavering quality of compositions and the tight performances. I just hope it’s not another decade until we hear more from these guys.

www.myspace.com/thepetrocksband