Listening with an open mind. Writing about what I hear.
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Bluesy, denim-shrouded, intergalactic mercenaries The Sword are on a planet-hopping crusade to boldly go where many machismo rockers the likes of ZZ Top, Thin Lizzy, and Blue Cheer have totally been before, but maybe with less dark irony. Armed for the voyage with a stockpile of industrial-grade glowing alien ganja, a traveling black tie caller full of Southern Comfort, and a thrifted library's worth of maliciously annotated, dog-eared Philip K. Dick paperbacks for the trip, they're bronco busting the outer limits of our star system looking for a good time, or at least a place that isn't lousy with Daleks and dick-noses. Used Future (shorthand for the gritty, lived-in, futuristic aesthetic of 70's classics like Star Wars and Alien) is the sixth album from these Austin space-junkies to deliberately crash-land into some seriously cushy, laid-back vibes. You will be hard-pressed to find a more immediately digestible, effortlessly exotic blend of southern rock, sludge metal, and mystic psychedelia this side of Andromeda. With environmental degradation, xenophobia, and late capitalism pushing civilization as we know it to the brink, the future seems bleak, but with a soundtrack like this, it still might be a place we can call home. The Sword doesn't have all the answers, but they're game to let you hitch a hike on the fin of their rocket as they cruise the cosmos.
