Borealis Rex’ debut EP, Cut Your Teeth, included one of my favorite tracks of 2019, “Take It Out On Me.” It’s a riff-slinging rocker with a chorus you can’t get out of your head, and some rough-but-right harmonies that sound like Exile-era Mick and Keith hitting the swamp. For a capper, it’s got a fiddle solo when you least expect one. The tune and the EP established Borealis Rex as a band with a few things in their favor, doing old-school Southern rock with some surprise, rootsy twists. But above all, it showed that these guys know how to write ’em.

That song reappears (along with two other EP tracks) on the band’s debut full-length, but it’s not the only standout here. The Stonesy harmonies turn up again on the opening “Hobbies,” whose mid-tempo groove grabs from the get-go; and the fiddle is back on the closing “Willie Taylor,” a Cajun-styled folktale. In between come a bunch of hopped-up rockers that range from the punk acceleration in “2 Much 2 Do” to the mostly-acoustic “Frail Old Bones,” to a stomping blues feel on “Quagmire.” Everyone has a hook or a lyric that grabs hold. “Wondering What to Do” is about hating your life, then saying what the hell and finding the nearest good time—a resonant sentiment indeed. 

Dash Rip Rock leader Bill Davis is the most familiar face in the lineup, but he’s very much a team player here, only taking the lead on two numbers—including “Stewed to the Gills,” a lowdown drinking song that’s a long way from the celebratory ones Dash does. Chance Casteel does the front-man duties otherwise, with a lot of bluesy grit in his delivery. But the band works as a unit, from the vocal tradeoffs to the twin-guitar leads to the collaborative songwriting. They’re true to their school, applying some ’70s swagger to songs that sound mighty good right now.