(Classic classic CLASSIC)
This album starts off with “Overture: Sunday Mourning”, and right off the bat this really isn’t what I wanted to hear. I’ve been dying to hear Black Lips in the raw, at their most fierce, going completely nuts. So when I hear a very light hearted and sweet hazy instrumental intro, I feel like it’s seriously just not the way to go. This for the most part is a joke. Not to mention, I hear that this album is supposed to be some sort of concept album. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any concept anywhere. Thankfully, “Occidental Front” is more or less everything I’ve wanted to hear from The Black Lips. Those crunchy guitars are just so exciting, and I love the upbeat feel to this one that brings us right back to the band’s CowPunk roots. The production on “Occidental Front” is much sloppier and dirtier. But that’s what you honestly want to hear from these guys, they’ve always flourished in these environments. “Occidental Front” is very unhinged sounding and very wild, which is just so refreshing to hear after their last album. I get almost apocalyptic vibe to this one, like The Black Lips are hosting one last big party before the end of the world happens. I do have one sort of bizarre question here, and it’s not an issue just my curiousness. Yoko Ono is apparently featured on “Occidental Front”, but for the life of me I can’t hear it. Outside of that, I’ve been dying to hear something this explosive from The Black Lips for years. “Can’t Hold On” is up next, and one thing I do have to say about a lot of these tracks is the griminess. While the Lips have undergone a major lineup change, they’re doing a pretty darn good job of sounding like the lineup from their “Arabia Mountain” days. “Can’t Hold On” is an interesting track, and it proves that Black Lips can handle a slow burning track while still coming off very unhinged and wild sounding. Zumi Rosow’s saxophone playing through the background actually adds to the very chaotic sound of everything as well. So far, this has been a pretty decent album up until now, not to mention I love how young and fierce vocalist Cole Alexander sounds here. But as much as I love this track, it’s becoming obvious that Black Lips are starting to make some questionable calls here. There was no reason this track needed to be almost 5 minutes long, with that last minute being almost completely unnecessary. Black Lips keep it together however with “The Last Cul De Sac”. We have a pretty spacey intro here which goes well with the fantastic cover art here, and the Black Lips continue to sound great on all grounds. It’s not as wild or as unhinged sounding, but at least the band here take a sound and stick with it. This track brings in some of that serious Southern flair that made some of their earlier recordings so lovable. However, it’s also a little less dirty sounding, but if they’re going to stick with this sort of sound I’d certainly be fine with that. The guitar solo’s are also a pleasant edition. So far this is still very enjoyable. But up until now Black Lips have for the most part kept it simple, around this point they start to seriously branch out. The next Interlude, “Got Me All Alone” may just be one of the biggest blunders of the entire album, This instrumental seriously has some bit to it and it could have been really actually cool. The low fi vibe is great and the sax parts that dominate most of this track are huge. But it really should have been a complete instrumental, because when the vocals come in things go from seriously hip to just plain ugly immediately. Sorry boys. “Crystal Night” shows Black Lips trying their best at some sort of tongue in cheek ballad. Now, they’ve done this in the past and it’s come out just fine, I’ve always loved their sense of humor. But here, I don’t know how to explain it, but I feel like I’m missing the joke almost entirely. This isn’t even a “better in the context of an album” kind of song, and even if it was it’s seriously ugly. If you want to be technical there’s a lot that sounds really nice. The instrumentals are sweet and the production is fine, but everything else is seriously floating right over my head. As this album goes on and on, I’m starting to realize, so many of these tracks just don’t need to be here at all. There’s a ton of great stuff on this album, but as a whole it’s starting to come off seriously disjointed.
As soon as “Squatting in Heaven” starts however, I’m 100% behind it. The groove here is killer, and I love the very grimy and sleazy feel to this. The very chaotic sound that graced us earlier is back in a BIG way. I love the group vocals here, and the way that everything comes off super hypnotic. However, I feel like half of these tracks go with a central feel and theme of the album, while everything else completely misses the target. A good track however is just that, a good track, and “Squatting in Heaven” is REALLY good. This reminds me of the very dirty and groovy “Arabia Mountain” days once again, and not for nothing, this track is just a straightforward rocker, and it’s been a while since we’ve heard one of those on here. But then Black Lips keep bringing back these interlude’s that quite frankly don't need to be here. This time, the “Bongo’s Baby” interlude is at fault. Literally this track is nothing more than Black Lips goofing off for about 30 seconds and doing a whole lot of nothing productive, and I’m not going to get those 30 seconds back. Thankfully, there are enough tracks on here that make all the awkward moments sort of bearable. “Rebel Intuition” is easily one of the most exciting tracks here by far. Black Lips here go for a very wild Country/CowPunk/Flower Punk sound that they got famous with years ago, and I love hearing it. As far as an unhinged track, this is easily the wildest thing I’ve heard here by far, almost to the point where it doesn’t even sound like it belongs here. It’s a wild tune, it’s upbeat, it’s furious, and most importantly it shows Black Lips seriously having some fun. But then I hear tracks like “Wayne”, and oh boy here we go again. Tracks like this I feel like I totally get what Black Lips were going for, but once again this comes off incredibly awkward and I feel like I’m missing some joke that Black Lips are giggling inside about. There are certainly some great moments on this track, like for example that talk box is freakin awesome, and the continuous focus on this more southern sound is super refreshing. That’s fine and all, but honestly, where is “Wayne” even coming from. I feel like a lot of the music on here is good, but the rest of the music here gets lost instantly in this album’s concept. I don’t know where this is supposed to fit in, but this album easily could have been split in half and trimmed massively, and most importantly gotten rid of this stupid concept (Whatever it’s supposed to be). And up next, what do you know, it’s an underwhelming interlude, “E’lektric Spider Webz”. So far, this album has barely gotten really revved up, and that alone isn’t good. But now, we’re getting another 3 minute interlude. In reality, it’s a cool instrumental and would have been a nice mix up if this album was going somewhere. But it’s sadly not. And once again, just when I’m sort of getting into this track the vocals pop in and take away from everything. But like I said earlier, for each moment like that, there are moments like “We Know”, which show that Black Lips still at least have some edge to their music. No, it’s not as catchy or as wild as some of their earlier material, but this totally works for them. I like the very scratchy production and those synths that are floating through the background make for a nice addition as well. As far as a sound that Black Lips SHOULD be going for goes, “We Know” is it.
This album overall could have been so good, but the realist is that most of the tracks here get muddled up in whatever concept Black Lips were going for. The tracks here that are good, are absolutely brilliant, and some of the best I’ve heard in years from Black Lips. But then I hear tracks like “In My Mind There’s a Dream” and quite frankly I get a little confused. I get that Black Lips here are going for a much spacier and psychedelic sound. But it really doesn’t come off well at all here. It comes off very spontaneous, but not in an exciting way, more like a “We did this in about 5 minutes” way. Plus, and worst of all, it comes off very synthetic sounding and very manufactured, and for Black Lips that’s depressing. Not to mention, as sporadic and all over the place “In My Mind There's a Dream” is, I feel like it goes nowhere. But then tracks like “Lucid Nightmare” pop in, and I’m instantly thrown back into the Black Lips glory days. This track is just so grimy sounding, like I just happened to step into a seriously great bar with a seriously great band playing. I love the rumbling drums in the back and the use of slide guitar for the chorus. It’s bluesy, it’s sloppy (In a Black Lips way) and it’s seriously rebellious sounding. Moments like this show us that Black Lips can seriously make great music still, which is nice to say. “Come Ride With Me” continues with this trend of great tunes late in the album. This one here is just so sleazy and has this really dark looming groove. Seriously, where was this earlier when Black Lips were putting out awful joke tracks and bullshit interludes? “Come Ride With Me” is easily one of the best tracks here in so many ways. For one, it embraces the very youthful, “Bad Boy” image that Black Lips once defined. But it’s also as far as song structure goes, one of the best tunes here by far. It’s hypnotic and catchy, it’s intense and it’s totally fresh even for this late in Black Lips career. “It Won’t Be Long” continues to make me ask “Where the hell has this sound been?”. At this point I’m just going to state the obvious, whatever the concept behind this album as, it wasn’t necessary at all. I get it, Black Lips wanted to branch out. But as far I’m concerned, it really didn’t work. Tracks like “It Won’t Be Long” make my heart light up though, because instantly I feel like I’ve just rediscovered Black Lips. They capture that old school sound that they’ve always done so well. It’s crunchy and hazy and grungy, but it’s also catchy and totally Black Lips. Just when I thought however that I was going to be able to finish this review off on a good note, we get to “Loser’s Lament”, which once again come off so awkward and out of place. Once again, I DO like elements of this track a lot, like the very stripped back sound and atmosphere. But then I hear these vocals, and it just gets right under my skin. Moments like this tell me that Black Lips aren’t nearly as interested in making an album like they used to. It used to come so freely to them, but this is just so damn awkward. If this is supposed to be funny, I don’t get it. And then we have the finale instrumental here which is seriously just a rehashing of every other lame instrumental here, this one hurt folks.
Rating: 6.9/10
Give A Listen To: “Occidental Front”, “The Last Cul De Sac”, “Squatting In Heaven”, “Rebel Intuition”
Overall Thoughts: Being a huge Black Lips fan, this one hurt. Black Lips for years have made some of the grimiest, dirtiest and most exciting garage rock. And there are certainly plenty of elements of that here. But what's the point of this album? Why is it that every time there's a great track it's answered by a lackluster instrumental or a really confusing joke. Why is this album almost an hour? And when the hell did Black Lips become so inconsistent?! And the worst part of this all is, the tracks that ARE good on here, are easily some of the best singles I've heard from the band in years. This one was rough for me, hopefully they switch things up a bit next time around.
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