American Aquarium - Wolves

BJ Barham has spent a decade howling his songs in a boozy, broken rasp, as though he's just choked down a whiskey shot and the glass it came in. With Wolves, though, he sings a surprisingly happier tune, spinning his recent marriage and cleaned-up lifestyle into music that's both focused and frenzied. American Aquarium's punky, pissed-off country-rock still packs a dangerous punch — just listen to the title track, which compares the frontman's vices to a pack of predators — but Wolves focuses on the promise of new beginnings rather than the drunken confusion of last call.