Rock resurrection

Critics often classify Marah's work as "roots rock," but Angels Of Destruction!, the Philadelphia veterans' latest album, travels far beyond that label. Indeed, with Angels Marah does nothing short of condensing 50 years of rock history into less than 50 minutes. And the album feels even more concise, given there isn't one weak track to disrupt its momentum. \nGranted, the price of this reverence for the past is a certain lack of originality. All bands have their influences -- but Marah's practically smack the listener around. Throughout Angels one cannot help but think "OK, this song sounds like Springsteen … And this next song is Elvis Costello … And now Dylan … And now the Beatles," etc. But it's hard to hate mimicry when it's so well-done and so much fun to listen to. \nFurthermore, Marah manages to dodge the deadly track-to-track uniformity that plagues many of its fellow retro-rockers. Terrific though they may be, revivalists such as The Black Keys and The Greenhornes are often hemmed in by their faithfulness to the sounds they're recreating, making everything on their albums a bit washed-out. Marah, on the other hand, leaps from cold-blooded blues-rockers such as "Coughing Up Blood" and swooning stadium-fodder such as "Angels On A Passing Train" and "Santos De Madera," to the slow-dance crooner "Blue But Cool," the barroom piano-driven "Jesus In The Temple," the New Orleans jazz-inflected "Can't Take It With You … " and -- well, you get the idea. When the final track "Wilderness" starts off with grunts reminiscent of Lee Dorsey's song "Working In A Coal Mine," goes into a furious bass-heavy stomper and somehow ends in a traditional bagpipe reel, you simply accept it for what it is: very cool.\nBy the way, of special interest to you Hoosiers: hidden at the end of "Wilderness" is a terrific little acoustic sing-along dedicated to dissing Lafayette, Ind.