Whitbeck - January 22

The band Whitbeck is led by its producer and lead vocalist, Greg Whitbeck. January 22 is its debut album, and it's a finely crafted collection of edgy rock & roll.

This act is from Vancouver, Canada, and some of its songs may remind you of Australia's Midnight Oil. Like the Oils, the group is in tune with the many of the injustices being committed against Canadian residents. One of the album's songs is titled "West Coast Love Song," and it's dedicated to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls of Canada. As the group explains, it's about "...the tragedy of the Canadian residential school system" where "150,000 children from hundreds of indigenous communities across Canada were forcibly taken from their parents by the government."

Not everything is all doom and gloom on the album (although there is, admittedly, plenty of that), as one track called "A.D.D." rocks with a nu metal, rap metal sonic ruckus.

This is smart, loud, passionate stuff, and deserving of your rapt attention.

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