If you’re really not sure where to place Robber Robber in the descriptor spectrum after giving their sophomore breakthrough, Two Wheels Move the Soul, a few spins, that might actually be intentional.

Then again, the Burlington band have always veered somewhere far left of center as far back 2019 when it was just founding members Nina Cates and Zack James creating speaker-blown rock with a high octane energy steering their vehicle. 2024’s debut full-length, Wild Guess, sonically put it best right there in its title just as well even if the effort heard them — now filled in as a full-force four-piece with guitarist Will Krulak and bassist Carney Hemler — sweeping their sound’s surface and becoming more dynamic for it.

Their second LP betters the formless formula by letting chaos ride shotgun in their passenger seat. Written in the moments of upheaval which Cates and James found themselves upon learning that their longtime home would be demolished by their landlord, there’s an uneven energy battened by existential uncertainty lent throughout the Burlington rocker’s latest swerves.

Circumstances aren’t always quite under our own volition, but that which they can control is working in overdrive toward their favor here from the moment opener “The Sound It Made” signals all systems go and runs off kilter with hyperactive drum fills and sizzling transmissions cross-wiring one another. The post-punk mechanics of a rampant mind skid out in every direction (“Avalanche Sound Effect”, “Talkback”.) So does some motorik swagger (“New Year’s Eve”, “It’s Perfect Out Here in the Sun”) as well as a shoegazing afterburn in their wild pursuit of a permanent anchor (“Imprint”, “Again”.)

There’s no constant as to when and where Robber Robber feel the need to pump the brakes or shift gears. With their grips loose on each, they full throttle their spirit forward — and then some.

Highlights: “The Sound It Made”, “Avalanche Sound Effect”, “New Year’s Eve”

Robber Robber’s Two Wheels Move the Soul will be released April 3rd on Fire Talk.

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