Dogs [Colored Vinyl] (Ylw)

"Dogs" is Cash Langdon's second record under his own name, but the first joined by his band Meadow Dust (bassist Matt Whitson and drummer Reagan Bruce). Mostly recorded at Portside Studios (the former location of the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound) in just two days, engineer Brad Timko (Dan Sartain, St. Paul and The Broken Bones) captured the trio sounding fierce and tight. Their fuzzy take on heavy country rock recalls Neil Young & Crazy Horse and gives off the heat of Langdon's native Birmingham. Like Young, his voice is simultaneously earnest and world-weary, but there's a sense of humor too, and a resignation to keeping on ("Dogs"). These songs are beautiful, searing, southern-gothic testaments to the ongoing violence of being awake to the world around you ("Lilac Whiskey Noise") and the resolve to stay awake anyway ("Magic Again").