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Jan 25, 2018 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club By Stephen Wyatt

Today, there is not much an avid listener can expect from their beloved bands other than to simply rock. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Wrong Creatures ravages, destroys, pillages, and burns over regions of rock music’s most heralded aspects: serrating distortion, kindling rhythms, Lou Reed-copied vocal tonality. The band wants little to do with an actual recusal of any one of these treasured characteristics. Comparing any one of their albums to anything other than this third-wave pastiche, meaning honoring bands by imitating their similitudes when penning songs that draw obvious comparisons to The Jesus and Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, and Sonic Youth, is unfair. The San Francisco-formed power trio emerged from The Brian Jonestown Massacre, an unabashedly, unashamed purveyors of psychedelic rock music. And there must be something said that Wrong Creatures pulls from its more recent past than from its deeper roots branched out from The Velvet Underground.

The track “Circus Bazooko” becomes the overarching theme of this new album. Ironically, it is contemporary experimentation gone wrong for all of the right reasons. It possesses a Hammond organ-like sound that is both disconcerting, yet at the same time endearing. Twenty years ago, “Circus Bazooko” would have been considered visionary; today, however, it sounds like a dog whistle for their fans to feel comfortable with the fact that this album, like their previous works, except Howl, will do nothing to damage their legacy. Again, being non-threatening should not be viewed as a crime, especially here.

Wrong Creatures scatter nearly great songs amongst forgettable ones. “All Rise” evolves in the same space that occupied Specter at the Feast, whereas “Echo” reverberates the same atmosphere found throughout Lou Reed’s Transformer. On the other hand, “Little Thing Gone Wild” reverts to their own established palette from their debut album. It is unremarkable if compared to the canonized genius of Björk or Radiohead, but it does not need to be remarkable to rock. The weakest link on this album, “Calling Them All Away,” still compels in spite of itself.

Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been are good songwriters. Even though they attempt to remove themselves from Anton Newcombe’s shadow, they still exist along the edges of his distinctive shape. “Spook” and “Question of Faith” bears Newcombe’s sonic influence, and because they embrace this, whether consciously or unconsciously, provides hope that a band rooted in the past will continue to make music that has shaped their lives as much as it has shaped its craft. (www.blackrebelmotorcycleclub.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10