Album Review by: Rachael Daughters "DJ Peaches"

 I recently was invited to go see The Slaps at Kilby Court with one of my friends. She

loves The Slaps and is good friends with them, so I figured “What the heck, I’ll go, I’ll see what

they’re about”. When I went to Kilby, they had three bands: Mopsy, Manwolves, and The Slaps.

I actually quite enjoyed what I heard of all three, but Manwolves stuck with me specifically.

They had a lot of people on stage (coming in at five members, which is no small feat on the

Kilby Court stage), which made them stick out from the other two bands, who only had three

members. I thought they brought a really friendly energy to the concert; the lead singer made it

feel like he was just one of the guys. They also brought a more indie rock feel to the vibes than

the other bands, which focused more on indie. Because of the unusualness of the band in that

setting, I decided to pursue their newest album, 3rd Dog, for review.

3rd Dog is not the traditional indie rock album I expected to hear after seeing them live. I

wasn’t expecting pure indie, but that’s what I found. Gentle drums with unedited vocals, twangy

guitar, the works. However, Manwolves really shines when they focus on the instrumentals, with

“Birds on a Wire” (a purely instrumental track that starts the album off beautifully), “Don’t Kill

Moths” (vocals over an enchanting synthesizer in the back, telling the story from the point of a

view of a moth struggling with its self-identity), and “Untitled” (the synthesizer is back with

drums featured more prominently, and a string like sound plucking its way through the song).

It feels like the band alternates between these gorgeous songs where they focus all their

energy into the instrumentals (that pays off) and traditional indie songs, that sound similar to Mac

Demarco. I think this album would've struck a chord with me more if i didn't feel such a disconnect

between the band I saw live and the band I listened to.

Click HERE to listen to the album!