Mark Sultan is clearly a man who likes to take his time. Sultan first got into punk music at only 12, moving on to garage rock at 16. In 1995 he formed the fairly well known Canadian band the Spaceshits and since then he has hopped from cult rock group to cult rock group, occasionally collaborating with the likes of Dan Kroha and Bradford Cox. It’s hard to wrap your head around because while you may not necessarily know Mark Sultan by name, you are most certainly familiar with his sound. Which is all to say that by the time you listen to his full album Let Me Out, out tomorrow via Modern Sky USA, it will feel a little like coming home after a long trip. That feeling of, oh yes, this is what I was missing.
His album is much like his career. It takes its time. The first track on the album, “Coffin Nails” comes in like a prologue, offering you bits and bites of the garage music that Sultan his built his career on. But it’s his crowning glory of a song, “Everybody Knows” that reveals the underlying talent that we now know Sultan has earned over the course of 20 odd years. His wailing voice flows with the crashing instrumentals that are his signature sound and from there all cards are on the table. His voice is throaty and loud, just barely carrying over the energy that is apparent on every track of the album.
It makes sense that this album is titled Let Me Out, because every track sounds like it is rushing to be released from some cage in which it has been growing over time. And now it is released, and it is stronger for it.
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