Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81

Genre rock Publisher RCA Records External Links Official Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Website Official RCA Records Website

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club has offered some rough and gritty work in the past. The self-titled debut from these Los Angeles rockers, featured a litany of bass-laden, gnarly growlers. Successes like "White Palms," "Spread Your Love," and "Love Burns" gave fascinating observations towards love and religion. "Spread your love like a fever" stands as an awesome contradiction of pleasure and disease.

Unfortunately, while the bar-house sneer and snarl of B.R.M.C. has returned after the acoustic hiatus of Howl, the overall message of their newest production, Baby 81, is an unfinished one, full of scorn and angst, but without any definable cause and without any method of resolution.

One would hope the album title would serve as a signpost for what mood and issues the album would explore. The band chose to reference Baby 81, a child whose identity was unknown for months after being found alive amidst the death and carnage of the 2004 Sri Lankan Tsunami. While this boy stands as a moving example of resiliency and hope, B.R.M.C. doesn't really link their sound with their subject.

Instead, their grungy, head-nodding songs are mingled with odd lyrics that speak towards unnamed anger. In "Berlin," we hear "Suicide's easy/What happened to the revolution?" What revolution, exactly?? "All You Do Is Talk" features "Help yourself don't say a thing at all/You're lucky words don't bleed." However, ham-faced lyrics aside, B.R.M.C. should certainly get a pat on the head and a gold star on the nose from Page and Plant for their opener "Took Out A Loan." And "Need Some Air" provides some thrilling piston fire and superb guitar tones that sound like dystopian Viper Motorcycles as they speed over crowded overpasses. Muddled message, but an overall, good album from a decent sand-in-your-teeth band.