Search - Halfacre Gunroom :: Wrecked

Are You Unable to Articulate Your Raging Emotions?

Audrey Roofeh | Brooklyn, NY | 07/14/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Let Bryan Hartley do it for you.This album is everything that rock and roll is about. Remember what Jack Black said in School of Rock, how rock is about sticking it to the man? Whoever the man may be (and in the case of this record, the man is most certainly a woman), this album tears at you with its sincerity and depth. About half the record are songs that you want to be listening to while driving with the top down, playing as loud as you think you can before blowing out your speakers. There are others, contemplative and earnest, that are best heard when alone with your emotions. This record is sophisticated but honest. Yearning but aggressive. It is not pretensious or formatted or stylized. It is what rock and roll should be but often isn't. You know the experience. You buy a lot of records. And some of them leave with you an unsatisfied feeling after a listen. Like the music wasn't real sustenance. Other albums feed your soul. This is one."

Wrecked is worth the damage

Red25 | KC | 07/14/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Stripped down. A rollicking, stumbling-because-you-are running-too-fast-out-of-shear-joy leap into the part of the river that is Memphis's version of country rock. Welcome to Wrecked.
Memphis-based Halfacre Gunroom proves dirty is as fun as you always suspected it could be and, at the same time, takes the listener to the sweet, sentimental place that blue collar alt-country rock has been using as a place to crash for years. If you are a fan of the Uncle Tupelo's, Lucero's, Old 97's and maybe even Social Distortion's of this world, then you need to have this album in your CD player on your next road trip. Every good alt-country album follows one strict tenant whether it means to or not: It rumbles and rolls like the engine of Kenworth diesel hauling down the road. Wrecked hauls.
The Gunroom's first record, Wrecked finds that place where youthful naïveté regarding love and death meet a voice that is much older than and wiser than the body from which it emanates. The album bows to what I believe are the influences of greats like Graham Parsons and Johnny Cash, while also remaining true to the punk and blues strains that are simply part of living in the culture-rich Bluff City.
Basically, this is a long drawn out way to say that this is one hell of a debut album. It will hook you on the first track and keep you coming back until you get the rest of it. That is what a good record does, right?
If you are a tough sell, make sure you listen to at least three tracks - Amy, The Day is Done and Lorna. That's 15 minutes of your life you won't want back."