Stiff

It’s a bracing listen then, and one that forces you to suspend belief as it whips past. But just as with each and every White Denim record, it’s wholly rewarding, repaying repeated listens, letting you check off things you hadn’t heard in it before.

White Denim sound as strong as ever on Stiff, even when the itchy undertone of the songs begins to rise to the surface.

This is White Denim at their loosest and most joyful.

The group stated they wanted to get back to basics and make a ‘good time record’, they’ve easily succeed, but Stiff also offers a band who continue to push their influences and have gigantic amount of energy left in the tank.

Their musicianship--flamboyant but never self-indulgent, focused always on the groove--and their sticky-fingered songwriting charm throughout. [Apr 2016, p.87]

Stiff flirts with mainstream etiquette--Ethan Johns produces--before resorting to the sort of hyperdriven, math-tinged choogles that have served the band so well over six albums. [Apr 2016, p.82]

The group still manages to fluidly blend southern-fried garage rock, soul, psychedelia, and funk on their sixth studio effort, showing no ill effects from the recent shakeup to their tight-knit core.

Wild, erratic and out for adventure, your mother warned you not to hang out with albums like this.

This is the problem with the album's more ambitious tracks: They confuse rather than clarify the band's identity, and sound more like demos than full-fledged songs. ... Still, White Denim manages to slow the pace and discover its soul more than a few times here, most notably on the winking Al Green sendup “Take It Easy (Ever After Lasting Love).”

Variety comes in the form of a gently funky soul interlude midway through that highlights the versatility of James Petralli’s voice. But rather than complementing the rest of the album it betrays Stiff’s lack of cohesion.

Placing air guitar and hairbrush karaoke moments alongside twirling, hands-on-heart emotion, with Stiff, White Denim place all their capabilities on show.

Stiff is a hard record to dislike--sometimes all you need for a good time is some well produced, straightforward rawk n’ roll, a good throwback album to channel your inner guitar purist to. If that’s what you’re looking for, Stiff more than fits the bill.

This is certainly the kind of music punk had to be invented for. It probably won’t make it onto the Radio 1 playlist, but don’t be surprised if something from Stiff pops up on Mid Morning Matters.

Ultimately, this is a fun record by a fun band. Not a bad thing by any means, but a little more salt in the soup would have been welcome. [May 2016, p.117]

There’s only so much traction that can be extracted from adhering too closely to styles this familiar, and White Denim don’t provide quite enough edge to differentiate themselves.