The Delta Routine’s last album, Cigarettes & Caffine Nightmares, was a tour de force of punk and energy. This time around, the band’s taken a chill pill. You And Your Lion has the Delta Routine doing their best impression of The Band and succeeding. This isn’t meant to be snide — didn’t John Lennon say something about finding your own style by imitating your role models and messing up? That’s what The Delta Routine did here.
“Chains Off Me” is a powerful start to the album, reminding me of the Band’s ability to showcase each member’s talent while remaining a cohesive whole. Few groups of humans — let alone musical bands — are able to achieve that kind of synergy, but the Delta Routine achieves it. Also they wrote some great blues rock songs on here, including “Queen of New Jersey” and “Gone Again.” The Delta Routine aren’t just good-time charlies, though. There’s enough substance on You And Your Lion to make you pause and think before you turn to your red solo cup. It’s exciting to see a great band grow in leaps and bounds — You And Your Lion is certainly anything but routine.
