No Depression Magazine

Bottleneck – Late Nights Early Mornings

On its sophomore album, Late Nights, Early Mornings, the Vancouver quartet seems determined to make sure it doesn’t wake up the neighbours. That low-key approach yields moments of undeniable beauty, as when Roby Carrigan, one of Bottleneck’s two singer-songwriters shares a cigarette with the ghost of Patsy Cline on the torchy “Am I Blue?” Her bandmate Scott Smith, meanwhile delivers gold with the album’s somber, lap-steel-swept title track; anyone who’s ever been in a dying relationship will wince at the songs opening lines, “….”

Still, the long-suffering unfortunates stupid enough to live beside you will love Bottleneck simply for not being the Supersuckers, proving what Carrigan and Smith probably know: Some of us can do without the attitude.
-Mike Usinger