2007-05-29
I can easily remember the first time I've heard Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC)…I was flipping through the TV channels in boredom, when "Spread Your Love" sneak into my ears. Well, it wasn't the song as much as it's rough sound and rugged vocals did. The word "Cool" was the exact description for what was leaking out of my TV and into my brain.
And that's what BRMC truly are, they sound like the essence of what is cool in rock. The old amp sound, bluesy fuzzed guitars and a singer that you can actually feel that he doesn't give a damn. They were the cool kids who went out for a smoke while the rest of the kids would still play outside in junior high. The ones who got all the pretty girls excited and their parents nervous. Just Cool.
At the beginning of the current millennium, vintage sounding rock groups started popping out from every corner, various "Strokes" per say. That is the same wave BRMC got on at the time, and I will dare say that The White Stripes" were cast at the leading role. At the time most of those bands were received in embracing hands by the critics as much as by the audience. After the first wave calmed down, the real tests started. The second album barrier and the time factor – who'll be remembered and who'll be forgot. The White Stripes easily found their way out of the race and claimed a much higher status, as Jack White proved to have a golden touch and lead them into being one of modern alternative rock's most influential bands. The second Strokes album "Room On Fire" was welcomed with mixed emotions, but basically was successful and acclaimed almost as much as their debut album "Is This It" was.
BRMC released their mediocre second album "Take Them On, On Your Own", and received deserving mediocre reviews. They were still cool kids to hang around with, but weren't THE cool kids to hang around with. Nothing was going quite well for the guys at the time actually.
In 2005 they decided to take another try with their very much different posed "Howl". If their debut album placed them as the guys who can get any girl they'd like, "Howl" placed them as the guys who would rather play with their guitars then with the beautiful blond next door. They sat down and retraced their influence into the more pure Americana roots. Some would say that they've traded their leather jackets with flannel shirts.
The result of that effort was definitely a varied record on their discography, which showed them as more adult, musically settled, and some claim much more interesting. On the new album, "Baby 81", there are no efforts to create a continuation to that doubtingly-growing-doubtingly-temporary phase. "Baby 81" could've easily been the segue album to their debut self titled album. Take into consideration that it was the album that made the world fall in love with them.
"Baby 81" opens up with an origin-blues riff covered with Fuzz, followed by a straight-in rock n' roll sentence: "I took out a loan on my empty heart babe / I took out a loan for my patient soul"; the raging blues oriented rock turns into a noise guitar jam and closes the song. They're back to basics yet developed and readjusted attitude give BRMC their almost faded aggressive sexuality back.
Listening to the enigmatic "All You Do Is Talk", the appealing "666 Conducer" or the beatleish "Not What You Wanted" is enough to realize that these guys have a lot more to offer musically. If you just want the old familiar BRMC from the year 2000, there are plenty of old style dirty guitars, direct melodies, and a rough manly sound to go around.
BRMC's mistake was releasing the unnecessary "Take Them On, On Your Own" as their second album. If "Howl" was their second release, even if it meant five years of waiting, they might've passed the tests instead of fading out like lots of other dreaming rock bands from that exact same point in time. A starting point like that forces "Baby 81" to be a whole lot more then "good" to make BRMC attractive to all again. And indeed, the new album gives a strong, hard struggle, enough for me to like it. But unfortunately not a hard enough effort to shoot them back into the music world's conscious. I guess sometimes, even the prettiest girl in school seems to forget to cool guy who did her in the back of the car and never called back.
Roy Povarchik
