Howl

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC) have mastered the art of making everything old sound new again. The San Francisco trio helped lay the foundation for rock in the post-grunge millennium, blazing a guitar drenched trail with their first two album, BLACK REBEL MOTORCYLE CLUB and TAKE THEM ON ON YOUR OWN. On HOWL, their latest effort, BRMC take a whole new approach. Comprised of 13 soul-searching, acoustic-based songs, the album finds the band mining folk, country, blues, gospel and rock for inspiration and salvation.

San Francisco's Black Rebel Motorcycle Club weren't exactly shy about their taste for early ‘90s UK rock (Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, Stone Roses), influences that freely permeated their debut and Take Them On, On Your Own. But Howl argues that B.R.M.C. understands how such devotion can often be a creative straightjacket, stripping their songs bare via almost exclusively acoustic arrangements that variously evoke gospel-tinged Appalachia and gritty country-blues ("Devil's Waitin', "Ain't No Easy Way," "Restless Sinner"), gentle, mouth-harp seasoned folk ("Fault Line") and vocalist Peter Hayes invoking various ghosts of Dylan past on "Still Suspicion Holds You Tight," "Promise," and "Complicated Situation." Indeed, in everything from its music and Allen Ginsburg-inspired title to the LP-deriv! ed running order and artwork, it's an album whose retro-'60s counter-culture vibe may be no less original than their previous musical obsessions, but one whose strong, mature songs and dedicated performances can't be denied. --Jerry McCulley