Alone At 3AM

Show The Blood

Sofaburn Records

The Cincinnati band’s current album, Show The Blood, evokes lives of quiet desperation, as so many are, all through the Midwest, and it’s rich territory indeed.

Singer/songwriter Max Fender’s lyrical grimness isn’t always grim. Toward the end it’s pretty uplifting. For example, the most sarcastic thing about “Constant Sarcasm” is that they're sincere and serious. And sympathetic. The young woman in “Story On Sixth” survives emotionally any way she can. “Upside,” about a father who dies emotionally after his son is killed in a car crash, is heartbreaking.

The music is gentle indie rock/ Americana. I hear Drive By Truckers, Jason Isbelland the 400 Unit, and a slightly rougher version of Philadelphia band Strand Of Oaks. Producer Mike Montgomery’s clean, crisp sound adds just the right amount of polish.

In the end, it's a good album to think to, for quiet times, late nights, and anytime something serious is required.

Andrea Weiss