White Lung – Deep Fantasy (Domino)

White Lung – Deep Fantasy (Domino)

Vancouver now-trio White Lung came into 2014 with two strong LPs and a pretty impressive resume (not to mention a ferocious live show), but their first release for Domino Records feels as much like a rebirth as an evolution. Although its punk and hardcore roots are plenty visible, Deep Fantasy isn’t exactly a punk or hardcore album; how many bands in those hidebound genres can boast songs of such instrumental dexterity, such psychological complexity, and such melodic richness? White Lung frontwoman Mish Way writes and delivers lyrics with the political and sexual urgency of the riot grrrl acts of the early ’90s, but her commanding, dynamic voice and her songs’ joyously abundant hooks have more in common with the riot grrrl-adjacent acts who actually had hits: Hole, L7, Babes In Toyland. But those bands had a tendency to be turgid or clumsy, while White Lung are lifted by the bashing, squealing guitars of Kenneth William, and instead of plodding, White Lung fly.Michael [LISTEN]