music

Reckless Kelly

Bulletproof

Austin-based Reckless Kelly has become a powerhouse live unit over the last decade, injecting its hooky songs with rock ’n’ roll propulsion without sacrificing melody or meaning. Bulletproof successfully captures much of the group’s onstage energy and the songs themselves are uniformly strong, even if they don’t quite cohere as a whole. Topical firebombs like “American Blood” and “God Forsaken Town” sit uneasily among a suite of tunes mostly about good old-fashioned romantic love and loss—but if you can stand the whiplash, Bulletproof is a ride worth taking.

• August 25, 2008
• by Chris Neal