Lee Resistant & The Lost - Thirteen Years Gone By...
Part blue-collar punk, part punk troubadour- Lee Resistant & The Lost are worth the listen
Lee Resistant is a UK transplant who finds himself currently at crossroads with his past and his future. Originally from the UK and member of short-lived punk band Fletcher (2000-2005), he now resides in Canada and is the front man of this eponymously named band, relatively new and finding a path from its past to its future. Thirteen Years Gone By... is a 4-song EP that sees Lee reaching back into material he wrote as Fletcher by giving it a second look and a distinct polish. You can look at this one way; as an artist finding that it isn't quite so easy to let go of the past, but you can also see it as an artist giving his work the revisit it deserves.
When you listen to Thirteen Years Gone By... you quickly realize that the music here is anything but old or outdated. Sure, it's been given a polish, but there is a quality here that made it a raucous listen back in 2003 as it does in 2019. Part blue-collar punk, part punk troubadour- Lee Resistant & The Lost play gruff sounding, melodic punk that's got a mean blues streak to it. You can point to bands like Hot Water Music as sounds it may draw from; but Thirteen Years Gone By... is more than a band that sounds like Hot Water Music. Tracks like "Least Resistant" (which is a reworked version of a 2003 Fletcher song) and the really fantastic "For the Few" may have similarities to the aforementioned band's work; but it's really much more. The latter in particular is one of the best, hard-hitting, melodic punk tracks you'll hear all year. It's less downtrodden punk, more blazing rock n' roll that to my ears, takes cues from the slicked back, rollicking ride that was punk supergroup The Joykiller.
Sonically, the EP sounds fantastic. Production wise the songs sound full, especially in comparison to the original Fletcher recordings. It is in part, another great reason to have reworked and re-recorded these tracks. And while its easy to say this sounds like Hot Water Music (I would argue that Thirteen Years Gone By... is what Hot Water Music would sound like if they were good), but in reality, there's much more than that- traces of early Alkaline Trio, a little bit of Loved Ones, and that Joykiller mean streak.
While 4 songs is a short outing, they are a very solid bridge from Lee Resistant's past to what will be his future. The past sounded good, the present sounds great, and I for one am excited to hear what comes next.
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