2016 Favorite : Savages - Adore Life

The sophomore slump is real friends and it is a thing to fear. There is unimaginable pressure for a band when their debut album rockets out of the atmosphere into something close to stardom as it did for Savages and their 2013 release Silence Yourself.

Good news, Savages entered the studio and produced a fearless, nearly flawless new album. Adore Life is out today.

It is as if Patsy Cline has swaggered her way into a post-punk apocalypse with her heart exposed. The band's blood pumps fiercely like one body turning the sonic dirge of The Birthday Party into the kind of energetic siren heard on early Fugazi records.

I applaud a band that plays together as if it is having a meaningful conversation. They give each other space and yet there are swells where they come together to deliver a compact tidal wave of power. This is the kind of rare chemistry capable of delivering an atomic bouquet of blinding beauty.

The theme of the record often targets love but it isn't romance glorified; there is also angst and open concerns. When vocalist Jehnny Beth asks"Is it a demon or an angel?" on "When in Love", she is accidently describing the record at its core. It doesn't rest on safe middle ground. These 10 songs deliver the entire spectrum of darkness and light; bleak and dazzling all at once.