BLACK LIPS - 200 MILLION THOUSAND

(Choon online, March 9, 2009)

Album review

As far as mythology goes, the Black Lips have one of the greatest rock’n'roll tales of the modern era. A band that was brought together by circumstance, has been plagued by controversy and death, and still managed to produce five excellent studio albums. That’s quite something.

Opening track - rabble-rousing rocker ‘Take My Heart’ - sees the Atlanta, Georgia quartet channelling the best work of Jagger, all guttural vocal yowls and the best sort of rock - tinged with rockabilly rhythms and characterised by twanging guitar.

On the doo-wop dalliance of ‘Drugs’, the band are on tuneful form, with singer Cole Alexander invoking the Ramones’ shambolic vocal style, and sounding for all the world like a gang of hoary old punks instead of the bright-eyed youngsters they are. ‘Starting Over’ , meanwhile, offers shades of Exile On Main Street’s ‘Tumbling Dice’ - all swagger and posturing.

The Black Lips do tend to sound like a band 30 years out of date, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a sense of humour. On ‘Trapped In A Basement’, they have a wry edge - “I’m trapped in a basement and my food is running out” - but the ghostly female backing vocal and mournful guitar make it a real horror of a tack, imbued with despair.

‘Short Fuse’ has a jagged guitar part that would make any artrocker swoon, from Television to Franz Ferdinand, while ‘I’ll Be With You’ turns into a slower tempo romance record.

The spirit of the 50s and 60s is strong in the Lips, which all goes to make some breathtaking records, with humour and heart, but, wonderfully, the ability to rock. It’s one thing carving out the rock’n'roll myth on a personal basis, but making the music is something else again. Black Lips have been judged first and foremost for their accomplished recorded output, and that’s what could make this band truly legendary.