The Boy Who Died Wolf

Album review

Highly Suspect landed two unsuspected Grammy nominations in 2016, pushing the Massachusetts neo-grunge trio into the spotlight. Maybe they didn't take home trophies for Best Rock Song ("Lydia") or Best Rock Album (Mister Asylum) but for this band, the nomination was the award: without it, they likely would never have received a signal boost to put them on the mainstream radar. The Boy Who Died Wolf, released a few months later in November of 2016, is designed to capitalize on that momentum but Highly Suspect aren't quite sure how to proceed. The Boy Who Died Wolf ping-pongs between the roiling, self-lacerating undercurrents first heard on "Lydia," stilted irony (an inexplicable cover of Real Life's new wave hit "Send Me an Angel"), and '90s worship, all tempered by a slight sense of self-importance that crests on the piano ballad "Chicago." Pomp isn't something Highly Suspect do well. They're better at insular, churning darkness, and oddly, they excel at earnest trash that recalls peak Stone Temple Pilots: "Serotonia" and "Viper Strike" both hail back to Core in their profane swagger. Highly Suspect don't sustain either mood through The Boy Who Died Wolf, which suggests that this increased profile may have arrived too quickly: they're ambitious but also craven, trying to seem simultaneously serious and visceral. Through this, Highly Suspect show potential but they're still in the throes of some serious growing pangs here.

© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo