Quiet Life are anything but on their down-home debut, Act Natural. The New London, Connecticut quartet may be young men but they have old souls. While they sometimes inflect perhaps a little too much relaxed pop into their alt-blues mix, they drive it well and far.
Act Natural opens with the haunting steel guitar of “Trying To Get Home”, and, in general, the record is strongest when it plays darker and more epic. That’s the case with “Home” and especially the following “Leah”, the standout track on the release. This indie-country blues-ballad hooks with its grand style, especially in its chorus line. Other top weighty pieces include the winning strum of “Sweet Smile” and the sad gravity of “Wedding Suit”.
But Quiet Life also have some fun on Act Natural, and while it’s not as gripping, a good time is still had. “Were You Singing” is some straight-up country rock ‘n’ roll, while there’s a sloppy-drunk aspect to “Every One”. Finisher “Niantic Bay Blues” is the most outright guitar-blues piece on the record, and nice way to end things out. However, it is preceded by the too cute and kind of nasal “Nighttime”, the album’s weakest song.
Despite hailing from New England’s New London, Quiet Life seem more to have sprung from the backwoods of The South, maybe by way of The Old West. Their music doesn’t just recall the blues-man of yore, but brings right up to the present day.
