BRMC - Wrong Creatures

From January 2018 it is possible to get the new album of the American formation Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. The band, which takes its name from the movie The Wild One with Marlon Brando, has gifted itself an album for its 20th anniversary. Major milestones in the band's life, including a Czech track in the form of two shows played, include death, illness and separation. Half a year after BRMC's successful concert in Prague's SaSaZu club, which was a promotion of BRMC's best album yet "Beat the Devil's Tattoo" (2010), Robert Been's father Michael, who worked for the band as a sound engineer, died of a heart attack. Michael was a founding member of the successful American band The Call and a relatively committed composer (Let the Day Begin - Al Gore's campaign for the presidency in 2000). The band was not spared a personnel change. In 2008, after protracted difficulties and disputes, drummer Nick Jago parted ways with the band and was replaced by Leah Shapiro, who is still with BRMC today. The band's lifestyle is explicitly rock 'n' roll. The musicians themselves say that R´N´R is a life sentence, it is part of every muscle of the body, every thought and is written in every facial stroke of a true rocker. The band's almost familial approach confirms the band's decision to "hibernate" for a time after Leah had to undergo complex surgery.

The San Francisco trio (exceptionally, a quartet) recorded "Wrong Creatures" as their eighth release after a five-year hiatus. The nearly hour-long album contains twelve tracks. The typical, dark expression that BRMC have historically only briefly abandoned, during the recording of "The Howl" between 2004 and 2006, is an obvious accompaniment to the entire album. The original influences that the band admits as inspiring (Led Zepellin, Rolling Stones, Call) are heard less and less from the individual tracks and the overall impression is more compact and already has its copyright. The instrumental overture of DFF is a hint of the expected experience - a combination of depression, a rumbling underside, dark patheticism and free space, whether for simple reflection or astral contemplation within other worlds. The very second and third tracks - Spook and King of Bones - are ambitious songs with well-built structures. Spook uses a strong echo in the basic riff and both tracks are richly dressed in reverb (hall). They have virtually identical tempos and logical choruses and versions. The quieter Haunt has a Tom Waits, or rather Nick Cave, vibe. The connection to Nick may be through producer Nick Launay (Arcade Fire in addition to Bad Seeds). The urgency of Robert Beene's vocals is supported by Peter Hayes' understated guitar licks. The track Echo, again one of the more lyrical, if darkly arranged, creations, could be from the pen of Marillion. Question of Faith, built on a good bass line, is a great club rocking song. The ninth item is the single Little Thing Gone Wild stylistically presented somewhere on the edge of garage punk and rock 'n' roll. The lyrics illuminate the meaning of the album title, which is a reference to, among other things, thinking about death and mortality. In contrast, the following Circus Bazooko, using Manzara hammond, is conceived at the pace of a fairground carousel. The album closes with the somewhat surprisingly Floyd-esque All Rise with piano accompaniment. The urgency of expression and arching arrangements are not lacking here either. After listening to the whole project, however, "Wrong Creatures" is far from kitsch.

It's good to have BRMC back. Their music deserves repeated listens.