Chuckanut Drive is a great band to see live. The band members command their instruments and the energy of a room with aplomb, wrangling the crowd from a group of disparate strangers into a dysfunctional family reunion. They’re not the only band to have fallen short in the translation from live show to recording. When the backup singers come in for a “choral” reprieve in the middle of “Kickin’ in Your Door,” for example, the voices are distant and sound almost canned. The electric guitar solo that follows rocks hard until it ends suddenly, without a smooth segue back to the chorus. This is likely the mixer’s fault but it’s distracting, nonetheless. It’s the same sort of disappointing moment that repeats on several other tunes. Believing Chuckanut Drive has a great record in them somewhere is what that makes this effort come up short. A few fine moments aside—“The Ballad of Becky and Bobby” gives the album a promising start, and “Whippoorwill Blues” is a welcome distraction—I’m left wishing they’d cut the record down to a tight, if brief, EP.

Standout Tracks: “Whippoorwill Blues,” “The Ballad of Becky and Bobby”