It wouldn’t be fair to give the San Francisco septet a simple label like country-rock. Listening to the band’s self-titled sophomore album is like listening to an eleven-song overview of the history of country music. Or, The Whale goes straight from the heavily distorted, feedback-laden “Black Rabbit” to “Giving Up Time,” a song that sounds like it was recorded in the mountains sometime in the 19th century. The opening of  “Rusty Gold” is almost identical to Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done,” and “Datura,” the band's twangy country-pop song about the powerful drug, could be a hit on any country radio station today. - Benjamin Evans