Hallejulah...New Black Crowes Music Finally Arrives
Written: Mar 22 '08 (Updated Sep 05 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: a cornucopia of styles and sounds, good songwriting and playing
Cons: not for everyone, a couple of below average tracks, bad flow between styles/tracks
The Bottom Line: Warpaint will appeal to diehard Crowes fans as well as rock fans looking for something a little different. Think less rocking, and more country influence.
MattA75's Full Review: Warpaint [Digipak] by The Black Crowes
It's been seven long years since The Black Crowes released a new album. In that time, they've gone on a 3 year hiatus, released solo projects, regrouped with their "classic" line up (only to lose two members 18 months later), toured extensively and with a variety of acts, released a live album/dvd, as well as a 2 disc set of "lost" album sessions.
And now comes Warpaint, the band's seventh studio album, complete with new members Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi All Stars fame) and Adam MacDougall. These new members step into the large shoes of guitarist Marc Ford (Dickinson) and keyboardist Eddie Harsch (MacDougall), arguably the two most popular members of the band, both of whom left in August 2006 for substance abuse issues.
The Crowes came to prominence because of their ability to write a true album; sure, their 1990 debut Shake Your Money Maker had 4 hit singles, but their fans became loyal because of the 2 albums that followed it: The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and Amorica flowed perfectly. The songwriting was top notch, and the musicianship was even more above par.
Over the last couple of albums before their hiatus, however, the band had meandered into uncertain territory. By Your Side was a glossy record with big pop/rock hooks, but it's immediate edification of listeners waned over time, as the songs just weren't strong enough on the whole to hold up. Lions, released six months before the hiatus, was a jumble of styles that just didn't coalesce. Each has their moments (put the two together in fact, and you'd have one hell of an album), but they aren't on the level of the two records mentioned above.
Warpaint might be. I say "might be" because this album has grown on me with every listen I've given it. Those looking for another Money Maker will be disappointed. But those looking for a uniquely sounding blend of American roots music and rock and roll will be overjoyed. Country twang overflows into juicy rock codas, mandolins reveal a tender emotional center, and Chris Robinson's voice sounds as strong as it has in years.
It is not just the variety of sounds on Warpaint that make it appealing. Lions had a lot of different sounds too, but it wasn't nearly as good as this album strikes me as being. It's the way in which those sounds are put together and sequenced, and in that way, Warpaint is a gigantic success. From the opening notes of Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution to the closing notes of Whoa Mule, Warpaint is an album that demands the attention of the listener.
Even the weaker tracks, such as the plodding rocker Evergreen and the folk-country ballad There's Gold In Them Hills, fits the journey that the album aims to take the listener on. That doesn't make them good songs, (Gold in particular is painfully boring) but they do fit the theme of the album, if not the sonic tapestry of it.
There are many standouts on this record. Oh Josephine starts out as a twangy country ballad, but it slowly builds momentum. When guitarist Rich Robinson plays the simple notes signifying the beginning of the song's extended coda, it becomes a giant wall of guitars that crash over the listener like waves onto seacoast rocks. Dickinson's slide playing complements the song perfectly, and his ability to fit in with Robinson, notorious for his egomania, is nothing short of impressive.
Locust Street is more of a straightforward foray into country balladeering. Dickinson's mandolin playing punctuates the gentleness of the song and the emotions that Chris Robinson vocalizes. The 1-2 punch that follows, Movin' on Down the Line and Wounded Bird, will get even the most conservative rock fan out of their chairs and dancing. Movin' is a sly combination of hard groove rock and roll with a dash of psychedelia. The band has had mixed results in this area in their career, but this time, they succeeded big time. Wounded Bird is a bit more of a quiet/loud mix. The choruses soar pretty high, and had the band released a song like this 10 years ago, they probably would've had another hit.
The first single, Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution, is a catchy classic rock song that should appeal to most. But it's the only song like that on the record. It's straightforwardness might have been better saved for somewhere towards the middle or the end, but it's placement as the album's opener doesn't take anything away from it either. Walk Believer Walk is a hard blues stomp that is as fierce as anything the band has released since Amorica. And you'll be hard pressed, religious or not, to not love the cover of the Reverend Charlie Jackson's God's Got It, which is simply joyous and infectious, the type of song you'd expect to see Chris Robinson leading a group of parishoners through at Sunday morning mass.
I don't think Warpaint is perfect, and I know it isn't for everyone. It's an album that takes a bit of patience to truly appreciate, and is not the instant gratification of By Your Side or even Shake Your Money Maker. It is an album though of maturity and perseverance, reared in the tradition of Dylan, The Band, and Gram Parsons. And neither of their couple of pre-hiatus albums had captured exactly what the Black Crowes have become, and where they are heading, better than Warpaint.
From the beginning, The Black Crows have done things their own way. Warpaint is the band s first album of all-new studio material in seven years. Chri...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![Warpaint [Digipak] by The Black Crowes](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/4f/43/b5/2045741936-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.