By Default

The blues-rock trio sketches out their future on <i>By Default</i>. Their first three albums formed an impressive trifecta, concluding with the soaring Nick Launay-produced <i>Himalayan</i>. <i>By Default</i> sounds like a band gleefully breaking from the past and moving forward. They motor down the highway on “Back of Beyond” and “In Love By Default” and vocalists Russell Marsden and Emma Richardson whoop it up on “Killer” and “Black Magic”—all songs bursting with a palpable sense of freedom.