Crowboy

Crowboy’s Christopher Smith and Todd Redmond classify their music as alt-country, and that’s probably appropriate. But Making Up for Lost Time avoids the pretentiousness that sometimes taints the style via a bracingly straightforward presentation that keeps frills to a minimum. The instrumentation stays simple, with fitting focus placed on Smith’s alternately rocking and insinuating electric-guitar leads and Redmond’s no-BS vocals, which eschew self-conscious twangy-ness in favor of an unaffected, naturalistic approach. The solos on tracks such as “Nowhere” and “Can’t Be Found” put their noisiness at the service of the melodies instead of burying them in feedback, and “Lern” barrels along with an abandon that echoes its lyrical mentions of rampaging hellhounds without lapsing into self-parody. What once was Lost now is found.