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ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Sallie Ford’s “Soul Sick”

There are countless rock bands making music today, but most of them don’t know how to play rock ’n’ roll. Sallie Ford has never had that problem. Ever since her days with the Sound Outside, she’s been rockin’ with the kind of fundamental swing that made the music sound dangerous in the ’50s. She continues to mine the mother lode on Soul Sick, a collection that examines emotional dysfunction with plenty of deadly ironic humor. She tips her metaphorical hat to the Ronettes on “Screw Up,” a tune driven by Garth Klippert’s greasy Farfisa and Ford’s rippling guitar triplets, call-and-response backing harmonies and devil-may-care lead vocal. Ford’s chunky, distorted, quasi-surf guitar rhythm gives “Never Gonna Please” an uncompromising aura that brings home the tune’s despondent message: “You’re never gonna please everybody.” If you’re looking for pure rock ’n’ roll, try “Loneliness Is Power” and “Get Out,” howlers that bring to mind the bluesy side of the British Invasion.

—j. poet