Sheer Mag
A Distant Call

Listening notes

Sheer Mag's *A Distant Call*, released in 2019 on Wilsuns Recording Company (catalog number WRC093), is a ten-track vinyl LP that draws from garage rock, power pop, punk, and rock. The record is divided evenly across two sides, each carrying five tracks.

The A-side opens with "Steel Sharpens Steel," the album's longest side-one entry at four minutes and two seconds, followed by the comparatively brief "Blood From a Stone" at two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. "Unfound Manifest" and "Silver Line" occupy the middle of the side at three minutes and thirty-six seconds and three minutes and twenty-five seconds respectively, before "Hardly to Blame" closes out the first side in just over three minutes.

The B-side begins with "Cold Sword" at three minutes and twenty-eight seconds, then moves into "Chopping Block," the album's shortest track at two minutes and thirty-two seconds. "The Right Stuff" runs three minutes and fourteen seconds, and "The Killer" is the record's longest individual track at four minutes and forty-three seconds. "Keep On Runnin'" brings the album to a close at three minutes and seven seconds, matching the runtime of "Hardly to Blame" exactly.

Across both sides, the ten tracks total roughly thirty-four minutes of music. The individual track lengths suggest a mix of tightly constructed shorter pieces alongside a handful of more developed arrangements, though the album as a whole fits within the economy of runtime typically associated with the punk and garage rock traditions it draws from. *A Distant Call* is cataloged under WRC093 and represents Sheer Mag's output on the Wilsuns Recording Company imprint.