When conversation turns to great rock singing voices, words like “howl,” “shriek,” or perhaps “croon” tend to come up. But Ryan Sambol, leader of Austin, Texas’ Strange Boys, whines-there’s no other word to describe his slackerly emoting, which lands somewhere between Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano and Daniel Johnston. Yet Sambol has an especially evocative whine, and it takes center-stage on this subdued, determinedly lo-fi follow-up to 2008’s raucous debut The Strange Boys and Girls Club. Projecting the sense of exhaustion you feel just before a hangover kicks in, Sambol laconically endures the pain so you don’t have to.
