Review Summary: Chicken Fried Snake or the Evening Psychosis in the West
Rattlesnake Milk’s “Chicken Fried Snake” is more than an album, it’s a ghost train slouching across the lonesome, broken plains bearing nine psychedelic wraiths. Its specters find purchase in loathsome Amarillo dive bars, amongst crooked New York skyscrapers and upon the stretching plains of Colorado alike, but the record never pauses for long as it weaves together its dark gospel. Meticulously constructed of equal parts country, gothic surf and cowpunk the Austin, Texas quartet’s spacy approach to music may present as laid back, but every chord, kick and reverb-drenched solo on this album’s 41-minute runtime is confidently loaded with intention. The lyrics are appropriately gritty, spinning yarns of American violence, misery and heartache. Rattlesnake Milk’s chops had been forged through two previous albums that saw the band proffering punkier cuts, but the seeds of their expertly crafted sound showcased on “Chicken Fried Snake” were certainly present. Even still, the refined narcotic hypnosis found on this 2022 record is in a league of its own, with perhaps beach goth indie rockers The Growlers being a somewhat reasonable although imperfect comparison. But the concentrated menacing, melancholy and sublimely groovy offerings found here are unrivaled by anything else I’ve heard. Singular in vision and expert in execution, there's a reason why it's impossible to find a physical copy of "Chicken Fried Snake" online, despite there being three vinyl pressings. With this album, Rattlesnake Milk are sliding open their ghost train’s ochre-caked door and offering a hallucinogenic trip through a psychedelic American Hell. It’s an invitation I find myself accepting time and time again.
