MattA75's Full Review: Before the Frost/Until the Freeze [Digipak] by The...
There's something to be said for a band that takes risks. Whether they work out or not is not always the point. Instead, the point is that the band was willing to take the risk in the first place.
The Black Crowes have long been unafraid to take risks. But when it came time to record the followup to last year's Warpaint, they took it to an entirely new level. The band headed to Levon Helm's barn in upstate New York, and, inspired by Helm's weekly "Midnight Rambles," recorded new material in front of a paying audience of 150-200 people per night for 5 nights over 3 weekends in February and March of this year.
This week, the band released the result. Before the Freeze... is an 11 track romp thru Americana and roots rock and roll. Even better, a free companion disc, ...Until the Frost, can be downloaded for free with a code found inside the BTF packaging. What is essentially a double album by one of my favorite bands of all time? Count me in!
Firstly, and probably most importantly, this is not the Black Crowes of 1990 or 1992 or even 1999. For a band that has always been as inspired by The Band and Gram Parsons as they have the Rolling Stones and the Faces, it's actually amazing they didn't record an album like this sooner. There is not a No Speak No Slave on here. At this point, Chris Robinson is mostly done with those type of driving hard rockers. And the music doesn't suffer for it.
18 months or so after Warpaint, and the problems with that album are much clearer to me. It doesn't flow as well over time (transitions are jarring moving from song to song), the closing 2 numbers are snoozers, and a song like Evergreen would benefit from the lyrics being shoved up Chris Robinson's rear end and telling him to write something better.
Before the Frost flows much more naturally. You're not moving from mid tempo rock to stomping blues to country rock balladeering to jamband hard rocking, as on Warpaint. Instead, the songs flow much more freely and connect so much more solidly. They all rally around the same base.
The opening Good Morning Captain instantly takes its place as a Black Crowes classic. You immediately get the backwoods feel the whole album has thanks to the ragtime piano laid down by Adam MacDougal. Soon, Chris is singing about calling in sick to the boss to lay in bed all day with his woman. Surely not your normal Black Crowes subject matter, but it works. The chorus is bright, warm, and inviting. Aside from Oh Josephine, this is the best song they've recorded since the reunion.
First single I Ain't Hiding will take most people aback on first play. It starts out as a straight up disco-like number, with thumping bass and spacey guitars. It recalls 1978 New York City not only by namechecking, but by the scene it paints ("coke on the blade...line at the bathroom, line at the bar, take it outside do the rest in the car"). It then explodes into a flurry of rock energy, with rat a tat fills from drummer Steve Gorman and Chris Robinson singing "Baby I ain't hiding!" It's the one song on the entire double album that feels out of place, and it will take a few listens to grow on you (I couldn't get past the 30 second mark on my first listen I was so disgusted), but once it does, you will be hooked.
Almost as danceable is Make Glad, which features by far the catchiest chorus on the record. Unlike I Ain't Hiding, though, it does retain a rootsy feel to it on some levels, and therefore, it fits in well with the rest of this material.
A Train Still Makes a Lonely Sound is sonically reminiscent of the verses of 1999's By Your Side, but without the glossy production, the overdrive of the guitars, and the weakness of some of the lyrics.
More than anything, they've really turned into a full fledged a*s kicking, take no prisoners band. When I saw them live in June, I was amazed how tight and downright AWESOME they sounded (and that was without all this new material). They captured that on this record. Luther Dickinson feels very much integrated on this record, and his work on it is impressive not just for what it does, but for what it doesn't do. He's not overbearing, he's not flashy, he just plays what the songs need.
And then there's Mr MacDougal. This dude f'ed up the outro to Descending at the show I saw so bad, I wanted to beat him with a rusty hammer. But he sounds wonderful here. His parts aren't buried, and they really do fit.
The rhythm section of Gorman and bassist Sven Pipien are as tight as any in rock right now. Some of the things Gorman does (such as hitting his snare rim at the perfect point on Kept My Soul), and the basslines Pipien lays down (see Houston Don't Dream About Me, and, especially, Been A Long Time (Waiting on Love)), and that fact is made just about as clear as can be.
The ballads have taken a step up from Warpaint as well (Oh Joe excluded of course). Appaloosa is a terrific country-folk ballad that doesn't drag to the inexcusable degree of There's Gold in Them Hills, and the Rich Robinson led What Is Home feels like one of the best songs that Neil Young never wrote. Only the closing Last Place That Love Lives drags the album down. The lyrics are terrific, especially the lines "Never blind to misfortune, Never deaf to the sorrowful moan, Set adrift on an ocean, Until I find that peaceful shore," but it's so slow and it just sort of meanders along.
The free download of ...Until The Freeze will throw a lot of people off. It's very much a country folk bluegrass album, and for those who associate the Black Crowes with rockers like My Morning Song or Black Moon Creeping will be taken aback. That being said, there is some terrific material worthy of your hard drive space.
Shady Grove would have fit perfectly on BTF, especially right after Good Morning Captain. While more country, it still has a roots rock Band feel to it, and it's definitely one of the better songs here.
Garden Gate, on the other hand, is straight up put your sh*t kickers on upbeat bluegrass, complete with fiddle and mandolin. I don't know why, but I really dig it, even though normally I wouldn't be caught dead listening to a song like this.
And finally, I also really like the atmospheric sounds of Greenhorn, which works really well as a sort of cross between latter period Beatles and Chris' solo material under the New Earth Mud moniker.
Much of the rest of ATF sounds like outtakes from Chris' New Earth Mud days, with an uptick in country and folk sounds. It honestly doesn't do a lot for me, and by the time you get to what feels like the 485th pedal steel solo towards the end of the closing Fork in the River, you'll feel like you'll need a good long warm shower to rinse the country hick off of you. Except of course, for the opening Aimless Peacock, a sitar centered "jam" that would make you want to stab George Harrison yourself, if he wasn't already dead.
Before the Frost...Until the Freeze continues the evolution of the Black Crowes from brash southern rockers to aging roots troubadours. BTF is well worth your money, and is probably the best overall Black Crowes album since Three Snakes and One Charm. UTF is free, and like I said, there's a reason for that. There's probably 4 listenable songs on there and that's it.
So grab Before the Frost, make yourself a cup of hot cocoa, and enjoy one of the warmest, most inviting, and impeccably produced records of the last year.
Track Listing1. Good Morning Captain2. Been A Long Time (Waiting On Love)3. Appaloosa4. A Train Still Makes A Lonely Sound5. I Ain t Hiding6. Kept My ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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