The Brought Low - Right On Time (2006)

The Brought Low are a rough midpoint between the Black Crowes' unabashed Faces worship and the ironic retro-glam posturing of the Darkness: Right On Time is the sound of a band that's deliberately recreating a long-past time and place, but this dose of 1970s heavy rock sounds entirely sincere. The Brought Low's obvious influences include Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bachman Turner Overdrive, the James Gang and Bad Company: the album even ends with a churchy R&B-influenced rave-up called "There's A Light" powered by a Gregg Allman-style organ part. It's hard not to think of the Rutles, Neil Innes' note-perfect recreation of the Beatles' sound and spirit, or of the plethora of new bands since the turn of the millennium whose sole raison d'etre is to pay tribute to the post-punk era, but this quartet led by singer/guitarist Benjamin Howard Smith -- a fine blue-collar Rock Dude name -- are so palpably sincere on tracks like "A Better Life" and "Vernon Jackson" (a tribute to the rough and tumble section of Queens that the band calls home) that it's impossible to dismiss Right On Time as a calculated pose.