Out - Billie

Billie, the second Out album, is a Michigan thunderstorm compressed onto 30 minutes of exhilarating wax. It covers a lot of stormy territory, violent, heavy & exhilarating at once - health scares; departed friends; the trials of living with a (loving) partner for the last 16 years; relatives who say awful garbage at holiday dinners; a brave friend who put it all on the line one fateful night; gettin' wild when kids are Out of the house. All manner of pox & canker. For all the gloom & doom, there's equal sunlight cutting through the clouds. Lightning can kill, but it's also awesome, right? When you see Out live, you might find yourself shouting along with a refrain like ""who's feeling like dirt?"" but you'll also find yourself grinning while you're doing it. As Brian Schill wrote about Out's debut, Swim Buddies, ""each of the 11 tracks is simultaneously fist-pumping & bleak - just right for the America to come - [to] engage in what Judith Butler once called the 'politics of despair.'""1. MRI2. Unreal Cities 3. Porch Cake4. Still Talking Wrong 5. Rashomon6. Step-Dads7. Wrestle8. Dead Eagle9. Reach10. You Sure Are Strong