Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - "Wrong Creatures"

So let me just start this off by saying, when I was young I literally thought Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was the coolest new band of the 2000's.  They had this essence to them watching them perform that was simply put, cool.  Their very hazy, noisy, shoegaze sound was just so hip at the time as well. especially with the Garage Rock revival well in effect.  Their 2001  album "B.R.M.C" is still to this day, their finest effort by far.  Dreamy tracks like "Awake" and "Rifles" are equal parts beautiful and crushing, while tracks like "Love Burns" and "Spread Your Love" had just enough crossover appeal to get the band noticed.  Now, while I do love this album, I've always thought that it is a little flimsy at times.  Meaning, there are one too many moments here where Black Rebel Motorcycle Club seem to be on the brink of losing their cool.  Whether it be a dreamy, repeated passage that gets a little old, or a repeated guitar chord that is a second or two away from becoming boring, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club seemed like they could drop the ball.  But they didn't, and "B.R.M.C." remains a modern classic.  All of that being said, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with the release of their 2003 album "Take Them On, On Your Own", really didn't seem to know what they were doing when it came to following this album up.  This album isn't terrible,  and it's far from the absolute disaster that most people plug this as.  As a matter of fact, the first few tracks on "Take Them On..." can easily go toe-to-toe with anything on the band's first album.  However, as the album goes on it falls all over the place. "Ha Ha High Babe" and "Shade of Blue" are half-baked afterthoughts, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club wouldn't master the Americana sound of "And I'm Aching" for another few years.  This album overall sadly was painfully alright.  However, tracks like "Generation" and "We're All In Love" do in fact make this album worth checking out.  So, where does a band go after releasing two solid albums known for bringing in a heavy Garage sound with Shoegaze sprinkled in?  Well, for a stripped down Southern Rock and Gospel sound of course, and that's exactly what BRMC did with 2003's "Howl".  Now, right off the bat, I do get why some older fans of the band would be a little turned off by this album, because this is RADICALLY different than the band's early material.  But personally, I really do enjoy most of this album.  Tracks like "Shuffle Your Feet" just come off so true to the style the group was going for, and later tunes like "Gospel Song" and "Sympathetic Noose" were serious standouts.  You can easily say that with "Howl" Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the easy way out and took a drastic new sound when their Guitar-Heavy sound was going stale, but I honestly think it's a very tasteful sound for the band.  But it's around the time of 2007's "Baby 81" that I really start to have some issues with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.  This album certainly does have its moments.  "Berlin" and "Weapon of Choice" are nothing short of great modern Guitar tunes, and some of the more stripped down tunes like "666 Conductor" come off great too.  But way too many of the album's late tracks like the impossibly boring "Lien On Your Dreams" and the laughably cheesy "All You Do Is Talk", go absolutely nowhere.  But I think the biggest crime of "Baby 81" is just how unfocused BRMC came off.  Up until now, they almost always had one sound that they stuck with.  On "Baby 81", the band just sort of seemed desperate to hold on to their "Cool" factor.  And for the sake of my audience, I'm going to skip over Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Noise and Drone experiments that is "The Effects of 333".  The next time we heard from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was 2010's "Beat The Devils Tattoo", which showed them go down the same road as their previous effort.  Now, bluesy tunes like "River Styx" as well as determined rockers like "Mama Taught Me Better" and "Conscience Killer" were really REALLY good.  But outside of that, this album was BRMC at their most tame and boring to be honest.  Tracks like "Sweet Feeling" showed that the boys still had incredible songs in them, but the rest of this album quite frankly put me to sleep.  However, to be perfectly honest, I actually thought "Specter At the Feast" was a pretty solid return to form for the band.  Don't get me wrong, some tracks on here were still an absolute chore to listen to, mainly "Returning".   But tracks like "Teenage Disease" and "Hate The Taste" had BRMC working with a swagger I hadn't heard from them in years.  So yea, "Specter At The Feast" really isn't bad at all.  Now, it's been like 5 years since we've heard from BRMC.  These new singles have ranged from moderately decent to painfully boring, so I really don't know how I'm gonna end up feeling by the end of this review.  Let's chat about this.

(Atleast we can always go back to tunes like this)

    This album starts off with "DFF".  It's a very hazy, noisy intro, but it also has a seriously slick and dark vibe to it that I love.  It almost has the feel of some big budget Hollywood Horror movies.  Like, there's actually a really great tension in these slow building drums and some great backing Moans/Vocals.  I wouldn't say there isn't much to this, and I do sort of wish Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the rest of the album down this much grimmer path..  But, it's a cool intro to say the least that offers up something different.  Then we have "Spook", which as cliche as it sounds is literally the most Black Rebel Motorcycle thing I've heard in an intro.  Those washed-out Guitars that fade in and out, not to mention the very hazy and starry-eyed vocals are pretty great.  Honestly, a LOT of these elements are what drove me to love Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in the first place.  And as an early album track, this is actually a serious stand-out.  It's got that sleek, "Rock & Roll" vibe that you knew that "cool kids" thought was totally legit, but it's more than that.  I think this is one of the band's honest to God more solid Shoegaze outings.  I love just how glistening the guitars come off on the chorus, and how they end up sounding so damn anthemic.  Not to mention, these duel vocals from Robert Levon Been and Peter Hayes have them sounding like they woke up from their usual half-stoned singing for some seriously gruff and passionate bars.  "Spook" is a great opener, not to mention I do enjoy how they're sticking with this darker sound still.  But then we have tracks like "King of Bones", which come off just the opposite in literally every way.  First of all, quite frankly the production on this one is an absolute joke.  I get that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club wanted to go for a muddier sound, but trust me there are sounds that shouldn't be touched, and this track is just gruesome.  Then we have the vocals, which just sound so outdated.  The last track here reminded me of everything I once truly loved about Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.  But these vocals here just seem so gimmicky and incredibly boring.  This whole track to me just screams to me as a desperate attempt to get the band's original sound back.  Which would usually be fine, hell, I feel like in a way it's what they've been aiming for since their second album.  But the production on "King of Bones" and the lazy vocals just make this a "no" for me.  By the time "Haunt" rolls around, it's starting to really hit me just how dreary and gloomy a LOT of this album is.  Which I'm totally up for, but let's be real, these vocals are some of the worst I've ever heard from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.  I feel like these guys could so easily loosen up and pull off a solid performance, but they continue to just reach back way too far with these ridiculously cheesy performances.  The results are incredibly outdated, and while occasionally come off as a tasteful throwback, overall is just cheesy.  That, included with the incredibly prolonged pacing of this one, has me waiting for this one to end for almost 6 minutes.  The instrumentals aren't even enough to hold "Haunt" over.  While I do think that some of the very hazy atmospheres are still pulled off gracefully, none of this makes me really want to come back to this ever again.

    With the last two tracks being such a drag, the slightly haunted funk of "Echo" is just enough to break this album up.  It's smooth, and some of the more airy vocals here seem actually lively.  As a matter of fact, from an instrumental standpoint, this is easily one of the most shining moments of the album.  Tracks like this actually give me the impression that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have an idea on where they want to take their sound.  It's hopeful sounding, and not nearly as much of a drag as the other tunes have been.  Not to mention, just how not-gloomy this one is for a change is a great addition.  That alongside the sheer majesty and how glistening the production is on "Echo" makes this one not really bad at all.  But alas, with all that excitement I must have opened up some hidden latch because all of that haze just blares right back in with "Ninth Configuration".   The vocals here are much more commendable than some of the band's early attempts to go for their more youthful sound.  But this is all stuff that's been done before.  At least some of the darker, gloomier aspects that came with the album's early tracks made them stand out a little.  "Ninth Configuration" sounds like it could have come off of any of the last few Black Rebel Motorcycle Club" albums, in the worst way.  The instrumentals, which only a few minutes ago were seriously standing out, are right back to being criminally stagnant.  There isn't a distinct guitar lick in sight, and everything here just blurs into every other instrumental.  And no, not in a cool way.  Even some of the "exciting" solos at the end just come off as a blatant rehashing of what made Black Rebel Motorcycle Club cool 15 years ago. On the other hand, the low key groove and sinister undertones on "Question of Faith" gives this one some real character.  Now here, the band's sort of repetitive, intense grooves come off really tasteful.  Not to mention, the atmosphere is so bare and spacious, which is totally unlike Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.  Now, the band continues to be constantly going for that ever-present "Cool" sound.  But on "Question of Faith", they seem like they really nail it.  In these vocals and lyrics, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club come off dangerous, dare I say sexy, which is something I haven't said about these guys in years.  There's a real Psychedelic feel here as well, fans of Black Angels will absolutely latch onto this on quickly.  It's moments like this that really make me feel like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club could very easily come out with a late-career album that would knock things out of the park.  But then we have tracks like "Calling Them All Away", where 20 seconds in I'm desperately looking for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to switch things up.  These guys to me, in their older age really have an issue with knocking when to stop and when to switch things up.  The last track was a fine example in modern Psychedelic Rock.  But "Calling Them All Away" is an example of why a lot fo modern Psychedelic Rock isn't stomachable, brimming with cliche'd guitar licks and vocals that just sound bored. While yes, the vocals are bad, the instrumentals here are just about the worst, and I can't stress it enough.  All of these instrumentals just seem like they were thrown together by some Art School nightmare student.  At the end of the day, "Calling Them All Away" sounds like the worst Dirty Beaches song I've ever heard, what a freakin' sloppy album. 

    What's most frustrating about this album however, is how GOOD it actually gets when it feels like it.  Hearing tracks like "Little Thing Gone Wild" just make me so grumpy when it comes to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.  Is this track the most unique Alternative Rock sound I've heard in the last few years?  Not even close.  But Black Rebel Motorcycle Club carry this sound like a Pro, with a cocky swagger and enough guitar licks to get anyone grooving.  It's a punchy tune, one with plenty of moments that'll really get you up and moving. In a lot of ways, I really don't have anything bad to say about this one.  But deep down, it still gets me a little grumpy, mostly because Black Rebel Motorcycle Club show that they're perfectly coherent and can easily still write a brilliant guitar jam.  Where was this sound?  Why can't we have more tunes like this?  Why do Black Rebel Motorcycle Club continue to cling to their hazy brand of Fake Psychedelic Rock?  The world will LITERALLY never know.  And let me tell you, the absolutely last thing I wanted to hear at this point was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to take a stab at Circus music.  But that's exactly what we get on "Circus Bazooko".  I mean, I guess it's something different?  But that certainly doesn't mean it's good.  In a bizarre way, I guess I sort of see what the guys are going for, because this honest to God comes off incredibly disturbing and psychotic. So yea, if that's what they were going for, they hit a real home run.  But outside of that, no sir, I do not care for this.  Believe it or not, these repeated Circus organs get really obnoxious very fast. And the lack of anything else remotely going on here, makes this one a very awkward experiment to say the least.  I give em' credit for trying something different, but that doesn't excuse "Circus Bazooko".  Black Rebel Motorcycle Club start to wind things down with "Carried From The Start".  Now, while this is equally as spacey and pretty "out there" sounding, at the very least this sounds like a track Black Rebel Motorcycle Club can handle.  I love when they really get into grooves like this, because that's when the magic really starts to happen.  Both the vocals by Robert Levon Been and Peter Hayes end up getting right in your head and make this really cool effect, especially when matched up with these very anthemic and wide keyboards and wailing guitars.  "Carried From The Start" is such a simple tune, but it really works for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, showing that less really is more.  This album ends off with "All Rise", which to be honest, isn't the best track here.  But this is a gamble that sort of works.  Once again, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are just so obsessed with being this "cool, retro band".  And on this one, they literally sound like they're trying their very hardest for a track sounding directly out of Pink Floyd's "The Wall".  The result isn't exactly exciting, and it's certainly not original.  But it's a big gamble that in a sense does really come off sort of epic.  I do wish they sort of went all out with this and made it even more lavish with instrumentals and made it even grander.  But still, "All Rise" really isn't that bad of an ending at all.  

Rating: 6.7/10

Give A Listen To: “Spook”, “Echo”, “Question of Faith”, “Little Thing Gone Wild”

Genre: Shoegaze / Psychedelic Rock / Garage Rock / Alternative Rock

Overall Thoughts:  Let’s be real, this isn’t the worst thing Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have done, not even close.  But since we’re being honest with ourselves, did anyone actually think that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would really reinvent themselves on this one?  No, not at all.  This album is an absolute mess most of the time, with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club clambering for anything remotely close to the sound that got them noticed in the early 2000’s.  Which usually wouldn’t be bad, but for the most part, it comes off vastly dated.  Instead of coming off effortless, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club often sound absolutely exhausted.  But, I will say this, there are some really decent gloomy atmospheres here and an experiment or two that come off well that makes this album good enough to listen to once or twice.