Album: American Aquarium, Burn. Flicker. Die. (Blue Rose)

Fronted by songwriter BJ Barham, American Aquarium are a heartland rock band from North Carolina with a serious Springsteen habit and, by the sound of it, serious anxieties about the lives they're living.

But those misgivings, and that uncertain future, are clearly still preferable to the small-town stasis so bleakly depicted in “Cape Fear River” and “Saint Mary's”. Burn. Flicker. Die. slips occasionally into generic Boss-rock, but succeeds through sheer grit and rousing spirit, enough to keep the band “living the lie that rock'n'roll's alive and that things are gonna change”

Download: Cape Fear River; Jacksonville; Harmless Sparks