Album Review: Western Settings – Another Year

San Diego punks Western Settings are simultaneously an unashamedly nostalgic and yet progressive and modern listen. Another Year stretches the ‘punk’ skin pretty thin, as this album is stuffed full of huge powerpop songs. But powerpop with a determinedly quirky methodology that can only be by design – odd chord progressions and timing changes are thrown in to disrupt any comfortable feeling you might have been lulled into. That’s the seasoning that lifts this album above the introspective vein of noughties punk that it harks back to. Another Year is definitely a widescreen production, full of air and space. No track more so than the massive ballad Better. This album has been a long time in the making too, following up 2016’s acclaimed debut full-length Old Pain and again produced by Dead to Me‘s Tyson ‘Chicken’ Annicharico. And a fine job he has done too.

This is a storming album that repays repeated listening, if only to uncover all the musical quirks and found sound easter eggs. It’s a joyously self-indulgent album too. With songs of this power and quality, the easy path would have been to stick to the straightforward arrangement. But no, Western Settings have to put their idiosyncratic stamp on their work. It does them credit, and nothing they throw in detracts from the power of this collection. Joker in the pack is the stunning closer Agnus, whose modulating, moogy synth intro pulses like an electricity substation but is quickly overlaid with an acoustic guitar and a quavering Hammond organ. It’s an oddly affecting interlude after such a run of bold and in-your-face chugging electric guitar riffing. Top track – well, it’s a tie between Big and That’s Pretty Good, both of which are joyous, driving and anthemic slices of almost peerless powerpop. Love it.

Another Year is out now on A–F Records and Gunner Records