I’m a child of the 70’s. I grew up watching The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. Yep, that makes me older than polyester. It also means bands like WUCAN sound ultra-familiar to me which is a bit of paradox because as they evolve their sound, I have the feeling they’re becoming less familiar to their fan base. Another paradox: With their latest album, Axioms, WUCAN has never sounded more like themselves and also less like themselves. If you like the status quo and stagnation, that might be a problem; if you like innovation and change, it’s a good thing.

On August 29, 2025, WUCAN released their fourth full-length studio album via Long Branch Records. If we take their title, Axioms, to heart we might consider each song as standing for a self-evident truth. One axiom might be that WUCAN is a band that enjoys the evolutionary process; another might be that the world is teetering on a precarious edge. Tea leaves. Your call.

The album itself comprises eight tracks and runs for a good 40 minutes. It kicks off on familiar ground with “Spectres of Fear,” a rocking track with some Barracuda-esque riffs offset by funky scratching, some rocking flute, and Tobolsky’s clean, soaring vocals. We even get some swirling keyboards akin to the likes of ELP and YES. This first track says loud and clear that the timewarp back to the 70’s has been successful. Track two, “Irons in the Fire,” maintains the momentum and keeps the audience in the comfort zone of heavy 70’s rock—we even get Tobolsky scat singing. If this sounds like a bridge too far, let’s not forget that Jim Morrison loved to scat sing.

“Wicked, Sick and Twisted” gets us deep into the realm of jazzy funk. The band pauses from their socio-political commentary to contemplate the blistering effects of passion, desire, and the secrets we keep. At mid-album we hit the catchy “KTNSAX,” the meaning of which the band has opted not to reveal keeping some mystery in this relationship. My guess is it has something to do with kittens and saxophones: one I love; the other I hate. That’s all I got. Next is “Holz auf Holz” another very WUCANian track. Returning fans will love this one.

While “Spectres of Fear,” “Irons in the Fire,” and “Holz auf Holz” feature high on my standout tracks list, “Pipe Dreams” by far tops my list. This is the hard rocking WUCAN we all know and love with scratching and huffing and even getting some Doom on. Reiterating themes brought up in “Spectres of Fears,” “Pipe Dreams” adds massive gravitational pull to the album.

And if “Pipe Dreams” gets us into a fevered pitch, the very next track, “Axioms,” calms us right the down again. Mellowest track on the album. Not my fav, but that’s just me. Closing the album is “Fountain of Youth,” the second most mellow song on the album. I mean it does oscillate between slow- and fast-tempo, but even if you average that out it comes to mid. Anyway, this is a contemplative song, musing about the destinies that we each craft. The message I got is: You reap what you sow, so stop bitching about a world you hate because we are all complicit in its making. But that’s just my take.

I’ve been looking forward to this album for some time. WUCAN is always a burst of fresh optimism. It’s hard to listen to a WUCAN album and not be in a better mood by the end of it. WUCAN takes some twists and turns with Axioms that might throw some listeners off, but the band stays true to their vision and refuses to stand still.