In Brief

Travis Meeks fired his Days of the New bandmates two years ago for lacking his musical ambitions. This debut from the ex-members’ new group shows why he felt that way. Retaining the aggressively strummed acoustic guitar and growled, layered vocals, “Tantric” otherwise boils Days’ wide scope down to a fairly mundane core of post-grunge Southern rock--sort of Alice in Chains meets the Outlaws. It’s perhaps more immediately accessible than Days, but far less substantial.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.