On another great song of theirs, “Dead Summer,” the band Thompson Gunner incorporate a little bit of Hall & Oates. But that poppy, peppy duo couldn’t be much further from their own sound. Warren Zevon, after whom they borrowed their name, is closer, but still nowhere near gruff enough. Singer Caleb Thomas roars and growls like Lucero’s Ben Nichols, Americana-punk at his rawkiest.
“Rutland Song,” off the same 2012 album (the band’s only to date, though they’ve been dropping Facebook hints about a comeback), needs to be played loud. Sounding like Bob Seger on Skid Row, the lyrics desperately demand good music as a lifeline away from an otherwise hopeless future. If Bruce Springsteen had recorded Nebraska as loudly as possible, after gargling some Drano, it might sound like “Rutland Song.”
Check out more entries in our month-long series on The Best Songs of the 2010s.
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