Book of Bad Decisions

One of the best damn rock bands this side of Hades is back, led as always by inimitable vocalist Neil Fallon, whose burly howl only gets better with age. Book of Bad Decisions, their 12th album, picks right back up where their 2015’s Psychic Warfare left off, peddling a similar strain of weaponized funk that’s been winning over rock-hardened hearts since 1991. Decades in, Clutch’s jammy, wide-open blend of jubilant blues, ’90s alt grooves, and Southern rock swagger is still its own kind of monster. “Are you cool? Well I’m cool. Is everybody cool? Well let’s get hot!” Fallon warbles on the barn-burning “How to Shake Hands” before segueing into the second-line stomp of “In Walks Barbarella,” playing with psychedelic shimmers on “Emily Dickinson,” and taking it down home on “Hot Bottom Feeder,” a crab-cake recipe—and homage to their Maryland roots—spun into song.