311
Universal Pulse
311 Records/ATO Records
Universal Pulse—311’s tenth studio
release—is rife
with their signature
tasty-waves-and-a-cool-buzz vibe. The
Omaha, Nebraska,
bunch acknowledges that much of their success
and fan base has been built off years of relentless
touring, so word is they took to their Hive
Studio looking to create stage-ready songs.
With producer Bob Rock onboard
again—he also worked on ’09’s
Uplifter—
Universal Pulse’s guitar parts are larger and
thicker than life, with articulate crunch, and
they even tastefully dip into arena-rock mode
during guitarist Tim Mahoney’s harmonized
solos in “Rock On.” Mahoney’s gritty, ska-rock
riffing on “Time Bomb” and “Wild
Nights” creates the familiar head-bobbin’-
and-hypnotic vibes that go so well with the
good-time rhymes of Nick Hexum and S.A.
Martinez. The album’s first single, “Sunset
in July,” has Mahoney going back to his bag
of riff tricks and conjuring a snake-charmer-style
intro that hearkens to
Transistor’s
“Beautiful Disaster.” Its super-simple, groovin’
rhythm and sing-along chorus are
classic 311. While the album doesn’t boast
any true ballads—something they’ve excelled
at on previous recordings—“Trouble” starts
with P-Nut laying down a creeping bass
line that’s countered by an intoxicatingly
barebones distorted guitar riff that carries the
song toward upstroke-driven euphoria. And
“Count Me In” is a fun-loving jam that has
Mahoney using his trusted Mu-Tron III for
bubbly tones à la
From Chaos’s “Amber.” And
the funky arcade-game-like “And a Ways to
Go” is driven by a galloping, envelope-filter-treated
bass line.
While
Universal Pulse has only eight songs,
it’s more of the same tasty 311 cocktail—a
shot of reggae, a shot of rock, and a garnish
of funk—that’s perfect for summertime
chillin’, coastline cruisin’, or afternoon grillin’.