Warlocks

On Surgery, the Warlocks third full-length, the band appear to have successfully drawn influence from ’60s R&B and soul. It is doubtful, however, that the Ronnettes would perform an oppressively murky song titled "Angels in Heaven, Angels in Hell.” Herein lies the crux of their success. The R&B influence has been cheerfully ruffled by narcotics and a septet with a predilection for dense psychedelia. The horns and pianos typical of the genre become 12 heavily-distorted guitars while the rangy, powerful soul-singer is transmuted into a deranged, nasally drug abuser. They can’t quite avoid the same trap the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Raveonettes fell into, in which each song sounds more than moderately similar to the last, but that’s a minor stricture when an album works this well.