Angel Miners & The Lightning Riders

Following a staggering loss and a period of reflection and rebuilding, AWOLNATION return with their vibrant fourth album, Angel Miners & The Lightning Riders. Taut and technicolor, the set is a rebirth of sorts for main man Aaron Bruno, who lost his home studio during the 2018 Malibu wildfires, which is memorialized on California Halo Blue. Starting fresh without expectations or pressure, Bruno ended up crafting an energetic, fun, and compulsively listenable set that distills the best of what AWOLNATION can do: making pop-savvy, dance-friendly, alternative rock anthems that are not bound to traditional genre conventions. Like a buoyant blend of Twenty One Pilots and Nine Inch Nails thats been blasted with Californian sunlight and ocean waves, theres a lot going on here, but it all works. Shimmering to life with the sparkling The Best, Angel Miners quickly shifts gears for the first of many times on Slam (Angel Miners), a quirky slow-builder that trades atmospheric drama for hypnotizing electronic beats before finally dissolving into a riotous rock rally. Later, Battered, Black & Blue (Hole in My Heart) smashes explosive arena rock with vulnerable, melodic yearning, spinning out of control in a whirl of wild screams. Hints of Brunos old project Under the Influence of Giants can be heard on the breezy mid-tempo Pacific Coast Highway in the Movies, a harmonic collaboration with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, as well as on album standout Mayday!!! Fiesta Fever, a rousing romp with Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) that lives up to the lyric about playing hardcore and rock & roll at a disco party. There isnt a dud to be found on this album, and its refreshing to see Bruno allow for some lighthearted fun, cathartic vulnerability, and spatial experimentation after three LPs worth of hardened, overly aggressive, and self-serious hard rock anthems. ~ Neil Z. Yeung