Freaking Out - Transparent, Lowlives, LP

Lowlives isn't so much about carefully stoking the embers as pouring on gasoline with merry impetuosity. Vocalist Lee Downer, drummer Luke Johnson, guitarist Jaxon Moore and bassist Steve Lucarelli, share a love of '90s alternative and grunge, and the desire to make music for little more than the love of doing so. Their debut album Freaking Out arrives imbued with that same spirit, nurtured first through jam sessions at Luke's home studio and later with fledgling adventures on the road. Freaking Out is, above all, the distillation of what Lowlives is truly about. It's rock music to make you fall in love with rock music all over again. "I thought by now I'd have the answers/Or the power to save my soul," Downer sings on the impassioned "Closer Than You Know". Lowlives might not hold that key, but it's the spark that he and Johnson have been missing in their lives, and looking for all along. Let it in, and you might find it's the same for you, too. WHITE LP