Axster Bingham

“Risk-taking” is the sort of boilerplate PR language that gets slapped onto acts positioned as an alternative to mainstream fare. But it would actually be justified in the case of Ryan Bingham’s latest; he took Tomorrowland as far away as he could possibly get from the leathery troubadour fare that won him acclaim (even an Oscar). The countrified textures are mostly confined to the final few tracks. A combination of pummeling guitar riffs and slicing strings on album opener “Beg for Broken Legs” makes for rock as big and bruising in scale as the late ‘90s album that Metallica recorded with a symphony. Bingham uses his supersized sound and raw-throated singing to convey a sense of blunt-edged, populist anger. Sometimes it registers as self-righteous, as opposed to rousing. But there’s also a fire in his belly that wasn’t there before, and that counts for a lot.