The boys in black leather return once more. With them they bring a small collection of songs that didn't make the final cut of their latest release, Baby 81 which was their most accessible album to date. What does a return to form mean for them? Non-conformity. While Baby 81 was a very good dose of rock and roll at its sharpest, it didn't showcase the best of their abilities, but merely hinted at them. Their post-apocalyptic doom laden guitar static was sacrificed for innovative bluesy hooks and their writing took a more tongue-in-cheek play-on-word approach with songs like Took Out A Loan and Lien on Your Dreams. They're all very good, especially live, but it all leaves you somewhat unfulfilled near the end, longing for something more organic and oh so much more deadly.
Well low and behold, the boys haven't lost their rebel spirit, they've just kept it on the downlow. Right from the beginning we're introduced to an earth shattering drum groove similar to something you'd hear on a chaotic dancefloor and definitely offbase with anything they've put out before. The song consists of just three solid lines; "I ain't ever seen the likes of you before, I'll be your ever-loving cure," and "You're my ever-loving cure." The sole purpose is to inspire you to move, find that lover of yours. Make good on the guitar's sludgy groove and grind together; heal one another. It's the end-all of love songs and it doesn't need an insurmountable amount of verses to convey that. Just a notion.
Coming off that high we're placed in a subtle soundscape, one which would seem impossible to find on a driven album like Baby 81. But it's familiar and trusted territory when considering their first two albums. Vision, 20 Hours and Last Chance for Love (the latter being a contemplative instrumental that brings the album to a close) are all songs that brings back their atmospheric tendencies and it's good to hear, you can almost sense their sigh of relief and tension easing up as they let their instruments elude sonic restraints and speak to us in wonderful foreign tongues while Robert frees us from our own minds with this unplugged lyrical ability.
"This life is pure fiction, no more reality! Your body's your affliction, your soul cannot release!" he bellows with a wild conviction I've never heard Robert touch upon in any previous song. The Show Is About To Begin is one of two centerpieces on this collection. An iron clad titan thundering into the arena with guitar riffage I'd have to say wouldn't be possible without Josh Hommes' contribution to the genre of rock and roll. Pure sonic doom colored blood red. As NME put it, "It's music to slaughter Highway 69 hitchhikers to." It's a damn shame this piece wasn't included on the initial release of Baby 81, it might have given songs such as 666 Conducer some much needed company and catapulted the album into the position of greatness it deserved. Oh well.
Along with this heavyweight comes another song I'm wild about. Whenever You're Ready. Starting with a murky gutter wading guitar line and the repeated mantra "I'm ready for you, all ready for you. Come and get me darlin', you know I'm gonna getcha darlin'" it marches along with a military drum beat that's like a punch in the neck of inaction. With this comes Peter Hayes, overt fan of the beat poetry movement of the 50's and 60's, opening up to us with a piece of spoken word that plays like an ode to determination and patience and god damn it's exciting to hear such creativity and innovation flow so freely in music like this. "Although he had no "need" he had great want and could not. His mouth frozen from grief, he saw his breath climb out eager to carry on without him. He knew he'd have to wait and he knew what for." His words so plainly spoken evoke images of a journeyman climbing a sun burnt mountain of impossible scale, ever reaching for this love, ideal; something to transcend his existence, one step closer to completion. And yet, it slips his grasp. Another day. He'll be ready.
As the song draws to a whisper, it's plain to hear that these guys have a vision to offer and want nothing more than for us to share it. I'd say they were partially immersed into the wrong generation, yet another part of me likes to think they're saving us from the mediocrity we've been cursed with in today's music conglomerate. They're on a journey of realization like everybody else in this world and I encourage them to expand their vision outward, as far as it can possibly reach because they've generated quite the fanbase to hold it upward in ways the business absolutely cannot and will not.
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