Five Eight – Five Eight

Five Eight has always been about promise unrealized, at least from a studio perspective. Over the course of its 15-year sojourn, the Athens, Ga., band’s live chops have stood the test of time—no fan of unadorned, cathartic guitar rock could argue that. But the records? Well, close, but not quite. Just as the band looks toward the release of its self-titled fifth LP as a new beginning, this album offers listeners a chance to discover leader Mike Mantione’s best batch of songs yet. Produced by John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., The Breeders), the trio’s 12 songs recall the punk fury of Fugazi (“Square Peg”), the indie-rock slacker anthems of Superchunk (“A Man Is a Pent-Up Thing”) and, perhaps most of all, the oddly dichotomous self-loathing swagger of The Replacements (“The Liquor Song”). There’s the rub: you’ve heard it all before. And you’ve heard it done better.