Score: 10/10
One of my first impressions of this new album by Detroit’s blues-rockers The Lucid Furs was seeing this dude on some site list them as a “clone of Led Zeppelin, Blood Ceremony and Blues Brigade,” the person hence of course exhibiting a commendable ability to claim someone to be a clone of many different, variant entities.
Generally, though, it seems like the reception has pretty good and indeed this band, since I first heard them via their sophomore effort No God? No Problem, has always kind of hammered their way into my mind as being punctilious and inspired in their high-volume White-Stripes-soaked mania. Right away, on opener “Right on My Level,” the howling of Karen O’Connor [1] and the bath of sultry electric guitars courtesy of Nick James delivers a level of energy most bands just can’t muster, and that even these guys probably couldn’t on albums of years past. The obvious reference point would be Band of Skulls but come on, you’d be lying if you said you got enough Band of Skulls albums in the last decade [2].
Also, drummer Gordie Kasza has way more tricks up his sleeve than the standard, by-the-book alt-rocker, pounding a vibrant life into “Straight into My Head,” for one, with a frenzy of busy cymbals and rapid-fire fills that feed the track with a sense of rhythmic expansiveness. Actually, I saw a little bit of press for this album on a metal site, which at first was unexpected since metalheads can’t even stand Queen of the Stone Age, but Kasza’s octopus-like moxie makes it a little more understandable.
“Follow Me” allows Nick James to step up to the forefront and really show off, like the guitar virtuoso that the ’90s were largely missing. The track’s initial phase is dominated by quick, grating stab-riffing that might call to mind early PJ Harvey, and things then emanate into noxious shredding that combines the tight, blistering groove of Ween (thinking “Sketches of Winkle”; “Stroker Ace”; etc.) and a sonic clarity that, you’d think, could get this band some serious airplay on satellite radio. But we’ll wait and see whether that happens — they say Detroit tends to get overlooked in the music. But standing at over five minutes and rife with tempo chanes, “Follow Me” is the track poised to stand perenially as showcasing this band’s singularity in putting together a garage rock song.
Karen O’Connor bears further mention as a commanding, terrific vocalist as well: her pipes are unflagging and gorgeous all over this LP, ushering in gripping narratives for the vindictive rockers like “Conscience” and also “Another Page,” which is the closest this album comes to balladry. Speaking of Zeppelin, then, closeur “A One Time Investment” was a complete shocker to me, draped in bongos and acoustic guitar, instead of the Fender stack fury, and sauntering along at that steady, unplugged volume under Karen O’s [3] thick, disarming moral missives. Is it a clone of Led Zeppelin? I thought it was a clone of Band of Skulls. Either way, these guys kick a**, and their upcoming live tour seems to offer quite the proposition of cathartic glory and some serious beer getting spilled on you.
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[1] Band personnel information comes from planetmosh.com.
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[2] According to the band, Da**! That Was Easy, like all their projects so far, was produced by Emilio Diaz at Toneworx Studio in Roseland, Michigan.
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[3] Lol… sorry I just couldn’t resist.
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