FF

Filthy Friends

Emerald Island

Kill Rock Stars

The second album from the collaboration of Peter Buck, Corin Tucker, Kurt Bloch, Scott McCaughey, and Linda Pitmon is classic guitar-driven indie rock. It's melodic, powerful, angry, but refuses to despair, and is sensible. Their politics are unabashedly left-wing, without giving in to whining, like on “November Man,” their great broadside against Trump. But for all the politics in their lyrics, there is also a sense that things are changing in confusing ways.

Buck shows off his guitar playing, which is wonderful, and Tucker lets loose nicely, especially on “Last Chance Country,” “The Eliot,” and the title song. While their playing and singing at times recalls REM or Sleater-Kinney, this band has a sound of its own.

The last song, “Hey Lacey,” is a same-sex love song, just Corin and Peter. It’s lovely, filled with love, and one of the best songs on the album, one of the best albums I’ve heard all year.

Andrea Weiss