Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers - Bought To Rot (Bloodshot Records) 2018
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“I don’t want to write about these same things anymore,” she says. “I need some new sources of inspiration. And I don’t want to be negative. I want to write some positive, happy songs, and I wanted that to be inspired by positive, happy living, too.”
Bought To Rot is Laura Jane Grace’s most accomplished effort in years, in some way bringing a refreshing sense of diversity. It almost sounds like a mixtape of different bands, all with Laura Jane Grace as their frontwoman. While I’m not saying that her latest Against Me! albums are bad or anything, there are elements here that take us back to Searching for a Former Clarity, New Wave and even the Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose world, but almost without any political issues mentioned.
There are too many comparisons with PIL, The Clash and Tom Petty in the way she sings on Bought To Rot, but what’s really impressive is the casual way, almost old-fashionable approach she takes over the whole album.