Review: Tim Hicks, Wreck This

Less an EP than A FLAT-OUT DECLARATION OF MOFO-ING WAR against the mundane, polite, and reserved, the latest from singer/songwriter Tim Hicks is a bruising, six-song corker augmenting the previously issued triptych Wreck with three new songs.

A single spin through the wildly propulsive and raucous opener Wreck This Town would illustrate the meaning of “fist-pumping anthem” to a spaceship of aliens like no dictionary on Earth. The similarly blistering No Truck Song — already melting radio speakers from Grande Prairie to Gravenhurst — hauls a trailerful of twang (hehe, gettit?) into the foreground as gargantuan electric guitar glides along the backbone. And I Know Jack About That upends country clichés with a hip-shaking sass not normally associated with baseball cap–wearing antiheroes deep in the throes of beer worship. Closer Ride or Die offers slight respite to all that musical adrenalin but really, the point of Wreck This is right there in its title. Just wait until Hicks unleashes these barnburners on a live audience.

Wreck This is released June 26, 2020.
Listen to it here.

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