Onion

This album strays towards monotony at times, but a plum guitar solo or a sweet-sharp lyric will always hook you back in. Shannon & The Clams are a band of cult status, and this album should expand that cult--it is their most powerful and poignant work to date.

There isn’t a huge sonic difference between Onion and the past few Clams releases, but the songs and instrumentation are tighter and better crafted with defined hooks and choruses.

This fifth album, produced by Dan Auerbach in his Nashville studio, captures The Clams' girl group sound with soulful feeling. [Apr 2018, p.92]

Some tracks land in an odd middleground between the grandiosity Onion seemingly wants to achieve and the shambolic charm that made The Clams one of the most unique bands to come out of the Bay Area garage-rock scene. Luckily, that scrappy spirit lives on in the album’s many moments of glorious abandon.

Onion is mature and contemplative compared to Shannon & the Clams' earlier efforts, but it's music that comes from a place of celebration and love, and these songs will make you dance and sing along--and that's what this band has always done best.