Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Wrong Creatures (Vagrant Records)

0

After a 5 year hiatus, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are back with, well, another BRMC record.

It was 2013 when BRMC released the somewhat lacklustre, Specter At The Feast, and not through want of trying. A lot of the songs on newbie Wrong Creatures were ready to go, but drummer Leah Shaprio was taken out with Chiari malformation. Thankfully, successful brain surgery later and the sound’s back on – the drum battery is alive and kickin’ right here, right now.

This is proper BRMC stuff. The darker, kickin’-tough sound of indie rock, with a soupçon of that shiny wall-of-sound glam guitar to make your ears bleed. Most recent single Little Thing Gone Wild stinks of the glitter in the gutter. If we’ve got Stone Roses bassist Mani to thank for putting the seemingly impossible groove into rock music, then BRMC are the numinous continuum.

In a way, it’s a good job Kasabian are on holiday, coz a lot of the good work here could have been borrowed from them, but a closer listen and it’s tough to work out who’s borrowing from who. Indeed, with the addition of Bad Seeds producer, Nicolas Launay on board, there’s more borrowing. Hints of Cave linger on more introverted track Haunt. The candescent, rising chorus talks of ‘unloving this world’ and pleads with genuine pain. The sleek, mantra-terrific Call Them All Away also ups the ante, showing signs that BRMC have still got it; the steal that isn’t just grit-rock-by numbers.

It’s not though, usually clear what lyrical direction BRMC are taking on Wrong Creatures; the vocals are a mere part of a bigger sonic picture. But I’ve got a feeling they are the tumultuous, tub-thumping sound of now. Glimpses of ‘questioning your own’ on Question of Faith sense ‘a world on fire’, with King of Bones promising ‘your head will blow / like a cannonball’.

Elsewhere, Circus Bazooko bounces down a dirty street with its monkey-grinder organ injecting a bit of pop pizazz into what’s is, 45+ minutes in, a little same-old. Indeed on Spooks, lead vocalist Peter Hayes declares, ‘it’s just another song / and then it’s gone’, which is fast becoming the overarching feeling here.

But, woe betide if there ain’t a lovely acoustic piano and cellos to break up the gloop on final number, All Rise. It’s the shoe-gazing showstopper, of course – gradual build up with a tumultuously beautiful storm of crash cymbals and guitar feedback. Put your best headphones on, and it’s worth it, just.

Simon Todd

 

 

The 13th Floor
Latest posts by The 13th Floor (see all)