Consumer Guide Album

Wussy: Cincinnati Ohio [Shake It, 2024]
The first new album in six years by this legendary band from the city it's named for muffle their usual snap and forward motion for the inescapable reason that they're still haunted by the sudden 2020 death of steel guitarist John Erhardt—not because he was as crucial to their gestalt as Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker, which he wasn't, but because they both still miss him so. "I nearly called you for a ride/I hear you still," Walker reports in the opener. "Get that gun out of your mouth," Cleaver advises. Because, really, "If you want to murder something/There's at least a hundred other things/Take some comfort knowing/It won't be long until you're winged." Seldom am I drawn to albums that strive to be sad. This one not only earns the right, but makes something earned, sharp-witted, and heartening of the compulsion. A