I had the same sensation listening to Steve Wynn’s Northern Aggression as I had listening to another Yep Roc release a few years back, Ian Hunter’s Shrunken Heads (review): I expected something sounding more like 70’s excessiveness but got much more Americana. In the case of Hunter, I expected Glam Rock. With Wynn, I expected something like his days of the Dream Syndicate with psychedelic touches all over the place.
Instead, Northern Aggression cooks along with a bluesy Americana in the driving guitar rock. It’s not until the fourth track of the disc, “Consider the Source,” that Wynn starts to stretch out into something space-like meanderings, and even then, Wynn’s voice sounds like Lou Reed approaching Tom Petty’s sing-speak style. Not exactly the stuff of psychedelic harmonics—which makes Northern Aggression a surprise of the good kind. “We Don’t Talk About It” is a great hook. The full guitar barrage of “Coloured Lights” brings on a swaggering, staggering twang.
Definitely go back and grab this 2010 disc by Wynn & the Miracle 3, and don’t cut off your listening before you get to track 10—the aggressive “On the Mend” with its instrumental introduction and the blistering guitar soloing.
