Lutra Lutra’s full-length debut, Psychopath & The Philosopher, bursts with hip-shaking bass grooves, fiery guitars, frenetic keys and catchy lyrics about love, devils and satellites. Dive a little deeper and you’ll hear wry and menacing tales of inner struggles, morality and felines sung by frontman Garreth Burrows and his sister/keyboardist Katrina. You could say Lutra Lutra’s music is a lot like its namesake — the Eurasian otter. “They’re very feisty, sneaky and bitey,” says Katrina, who used to work as a zoo interpreter. “They have a sense of humour but they know when to fight back.” The 10-song album, produced by Royal Tusk guitarist Quinn Cyrankiewicz (Nature Of, Calling All Captains), follows Lutra Lutra’s self-titled EP (2016) and a Western Canadian tour. Psychopath & The Philosopher’s title track weaves together references to dueling house cats, philosopher Slavoj Zizek and The Sound of Music. “Eye In The Sky,” an homage to ‘70s rock, is a fist-raising anthem against government control while “Devils Give” takes a look at what we perceive as good versus evil. “It’s kind of about the dual nature of humans,” says Garreth. “You can be an angel if all your options are taken away, but to see where your morality lies, you need to have all options available.” Options are fundamental to the Edmonton alt-rock band’s craft. Psychopath & The Philosopher, also starring childhood friend/bassist Will Smith and drummer Denis Frigon, roars with a menagerie of sounds reminiscent of genre-bending acts such as Mother Mother, Arctic Monkeys, The Doors, Red Hot Chili Peppers and System of A Down. The Burrows grew up with their own menagerie in Red Deer — five donkeys, four dogs, two horses and 23 cats — and initially started off as an acoustic duo known as Katasaurus Wrecks. “Katrina and I had never played together up until this point,” says Garreth. “I was always jamming along to drum tracks in the basement on my electric guitar and she was playing classical piano upstairs and we would yell at each other to shut up. So we never thought this could work together.” Work it does — and spectacularly well