Bulletproof

With their sixth studio album, Reckless Kelly's Bulletproof unleashes crunchy, twangy, Americana rock 'n' roll that sounds even more dangerously cool than the album art looks. (And in case you didn't know, that's their namesake, Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, depicted on the cover.) The opening song "Ragged As The Road" rocks it outlaw style, like an amplified David Allan Coe crossed with a '70s Rolling Stones swagger (whose Mick Jagger portrayed Ned Kelly in the 1970 film about the infamous bushranger). Both "Love In Her Eyes" and "American Blood" sound somewhat influenced by Steve Earle, and not just because both parties pull big Texan twang-rock tones. The former tune is as catchy and punchy as anything on Earle's Guitar Town and the latter uses grungy, Crazy Horse sounding guitars and a fist pumping melody to rail against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. And the guitars on the title track are so saturated with dark sounding vintage distortion that it wouldn't be at all surprising if both Crazy Horse and Drive-By Truckers were somehow involved.