Old-School Rockers Crush It In The New Era

Walking Papers are a Seattle-based quartet churning out sassy, hard-hitting guitar rock. The band was originally formed by Jeff Angell (vocals/guitar) of Missionary Position and Barrett Martin (drums) of Screaming Trees. On their first album, 2013’s Walking Papers, they received heavy contributions from Angell’s former band mate Brandon Anderson on keyboards, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready (guitar). McKagan and Anderson then joined the band following the album’s completion. Now in 2018 the group has returned with its sophomore effort, WP2.

One thing that jumps out is the album’s overall defiance and swagger. For a modern rock record there are a lot of classic rock influences, probably brought together from McKagan and Martin’s longtime rock chops. Angell’s vocal delivery has a little bit of a sneer to it, which gives Walking Papers a more cocky appearance. The distortion on the guitars is raw, the rhythm section has a tight groove and the keyboards add a fun flourish on top.

Overall, this attitude makes WP2 a much more enjoyable listen as well. And yet, it’s not visible on every song. Sure, there’s a ton of swagger on tracks such as opener “My Luck Pushed Back” and “Hard To Look Away,” but there’s also plenty of softer moments such as “Red and White” and “Don’t Owe Me Nothing.” Other interesting moments are the organ-heavy ‘70s style slow jam “This Is How It Ends” and bouncy garage-punk anthem “Somebody Else.” There are plenty of guitar solos throughout the album as well, all of which are downright sinful. The only conceivable weakness is that there’s little to no variety in overall style, but that can be debated many times whether it’s a good or bad thing.

In an era where rock music tries to embrace more electronic and commercial elements to their sounds, Walking Papers appear to not care about standing with that trend at all. They put out exactly what they want to put out, and it’s a pretty great end result. It should be fun to figure out where this band goes after this, or if they go anywhere new at all. It’s a pretty safe bet the resulting music will be good either way.