Raze Regal & White Denim Inc. [LP], Raze Regal & White Denim Inc., Vinyl

Raze Regal, prolific electric guitarist and James Petralli, founding member and vocalist of Austin, Texas indie rock legends White Denim, met during a West Coast tour in 2019, and quickly formed a deep friendship bound by their mutual love of '60s and '70s rock, the Jazz saxophone innovations and compositions of Eddie Harris, Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter, '80s R&B production techniques and New Wave energy. What followed for both men was a period of intense personal change, growth, and transformation - a period that is reflected in the creation of Raze Regal & White Denim Inc., a profoundly collaborative album that saw both musicians pour years of blood, sweat, and tears into some of the most soul-affirming music of their careers. It was more than just the fact that they were good at writing songs together-there was something deeply complementary in the way Raze and James thought about music and songwriting that made them better than the sum of their parts. The result bursts at the seams with jazz chords, rock hooks, soul vocals, pop melodies, and everything that made the latter half of the 20th century some of the most cardinal music in human history. Completely eschewing the trappings of "retro" or "throwback" sentiments, the record could have only come from artists with such a deep knowledge of popular music, that they are able to transcend references and homages, presenting something comfortably familiar yet totally fresh.