Recording information: Pete's Room, Oxford, MS; Sweet Tea, Oxford, MS; Voyager's Rest, Oxford, MS.

After a head-spinning few years--from recording sessions interrupted by Hurricane Katrina to a one-off deal with goliath Interscope Records--Colour Revolt settle into a hometown groove with PLUNDER, BEG, AND CURSE, their full-length debut on esteemed Mississippi label Fat Possum. While PLUNDER, BEG, AND CURSE is not as immediately striking as their debut EP, it is a classic grower. Among the many beauties here are "A Siren," which foregrounds singer Jesse Coppenbarger's larynx-shredding delivery; and "Elegant View," a feedback framed ballad. With new bassist Patrick Addison, the Oxford, Mississippi, quintet delivers a solid outing that defines modern Southern rock as the midpoint between the Kings of Leon and Dax Riggs.

In 2006, an imprint of the enormous Interscope label signed a one-off distribution deal with Mississippi indie rockers Colour Revolt to reissue their promising self-titled 2005 EP. However, for their first full-length, the Oxford-based quintet went indie and went local, signing to the highly esteemed roots-oriented label Fat Possum for Plunder, Beg and Curse. Largely ditching the metallic edge of the EP (and, thankfully, not putting on a faux-bluesy edge to better fit in with their new label peers), Colour Revolt unfortunately don't deliver on the promise of their debut. In lieu of the EP's sonic personality and occasional socio-political edge, Plunder, Beg and Curse features a depressingly standard-issue brand of indie rock. These ten songs are sorta heavy, sorta noisy, and sorta slow, but not to the point where the listener can define the album by any of those characteristics. Similarly, singer Jesse Coppenbarger's voice is pleasantly unremarkable, with no undercurrent of angst, menace, or anything else particularly memorable. As a result, the album just sort of sits there, inert, the sluggish, plodding guitar-rawk songs waiting in vain for a wave of excitement, emotion, or plain rock & roll fun to overtake them. ~ Stewart Mason