DVDfever.co.uk - Black Lips: 20 Million Thousand CD reviewDVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of Blu-rays, DVDs, Games, CDs, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more
God knows why, but sometimes you hear something that wouldn’t normally register on your music radar. It really is inexplicable.
And so it is with Black Lips. These self-confessed ‘flower punks’ from Atlanta Georgia now release their fifth album.
Black Lips make me think of the band that reputedly created garage rock and punk, Detroit’s protopunkers – MC5.
Having recently, and for the first time, listened to one of the greatest live albums of all-time kick Out The Jams (1969) you can see where Black Lips are sort of coming from.
Their ruff’n’ready swagger is reminiscent of the early Rolling Stones (still), though no direct musical comparisons exist. There’s also darkness to their mood that seems to emanate from The Doors.
Released on Vice Records, 20 Million..brings a totally refreshing take on 21st century rock, despite being rooted in the 60s.
In part, apart from an apparent sloppy attitude, their music has a naivety missing in today’s rock. Don’t be fooled these boys can play, even if the singer’s a bit, well, not that good, though in a wacky way, suits their ramblings.
If Black Lips could come up with consistently good songs they might make some serious headway. As they stand, they probably won’t.
Often shambolic - Big Black Jesus Of Today, The Drop I Hold, Body Combat, Elijah, I Saw God, and unnecessary final untitled track, they can counter this some decent rock.
It opens with freewheeling Take My Heart, and they soon find their mojo on a comparatively (lightweight by their standards) soft-rock tinged Drugs, though as with many of their songs, the lyrics are barely understandable.
Starting Again is possibly their best organised song as they jangly guitar work owes much to late 60s. Pity the singer’s wailing destroys it.
They hit their peak on almost popified ballad I’ll Be With You and riffy Short Fuse. Most interesting track ? The hippy styled Old Man is a classic, where they actually appear to be taking things seriously.
Black Lips can be a very, very frustrating band. With some guidance they have potential be a really good band.
The verdict - 20 Million… should have been cropped down to around nine or ten tracks.
Radio: Hear tracks soon on THE PLUG at
wrexham.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Take My Heart
2. Drugs
3. Starting Over
4. Let It Grow
5. Trapped In A Basement
6. Short Fuse
7. I’ll Be With You
8. Big Black Baby Jesus Of Today
9. Again And Again
10. Old Man
11. The Drop I Hold
12. Body Combat
13. Elijah
14. I Saw Goid
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.