The Fat Angel Sings

The rumble and roar of the road. The dangers of addiction. The pack mentality that comes with crisscrossing the country alongside your best friends on tour. All four were on BJ Barham’s mind when he wrote “Wolves,” the title track to American Aquarium’s newest album. Rooted in the brawny, barroom country-rock of fellow road warriors like Lucero and Drive-By Truckers — whose most famous alum, Jason Isbell, produced American Aquarium’s “Burn.Flicker.Die”. in 2012 — Wolves is a rallying cry from a band that’s spent the bulk of the past nine years onstage, hunting for their big break. It’s music for dive bars and pools halls, for late-night drives and early morning hangovers. Barham, who played with more than 20 different bandmates before nailing down American Aquarium’s current lineup, calls it “the sound of a band that’s firing on all cylinders.