Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Howl – (RCA)

I never thought I’d refer to the “high lonesome sound of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club” but here you have it.

Noisemakers who updated The Jesus And Mary Chain (and made it a whole lot better in the process) over the course of their two previous releases return after a serious of band ups and downs (leaving a label, drummer leaving, drummer returning, etc.) to deliver their best work yet.  While there’s a very different BRMC represented here, one has to take into account the fact that as good as the “old” BRMC were, they ran the risk of getting tired pretty quick.  One look at other bands with the “shoe gazer” tag and all you see are a series of short – sometimes VERY short – careers.  Deservedly so?  In most cases, yes.  The genre is distinguished by an awful lot of noise being made with songs seamlessly mixing into one another.  BRMC’s distinction was that you could at least tell the difference between songs.

With Howl, the band are suddenly “songwriters” of a pretty high order, and to do it they mine America’s folk heritage.  What’s uncanny about Howl is that they do it in such an assured way that it becomes hard to imagine them having done anything else.  They’ve taken folk, blues, and roots music in general to heart (T-Bone Burnett helps out here) and the end result is a set of songs that end up sounding more like hymns – literally.  Recurring themes of God, salvation, and the devil abound here.  It’s like BRMC see a slow train comin’.

“Time won’t save my soul” is the opening, er, howl on “Shuffle Your Feet” – a clapalong acoustic number distinguished by some great harmonica and electric guitar flourishes reminiscent of early Mersey grooves.  Ok, fine – this fits in the BRMC universe so far (to some degree anyway).  The following “Howl” is even more familiar, but when we get to “Devil’s Waitin’” we hear that the band has a real agenda here.  “Devil’s Waitin’” is a lovely bit of acoustic folk that could fool someone into thinking it was taken from sort of “American Songbook” – it’s like a John Fahey song with words, and less fancy finger play.  This is serious business.

Songs like “Ain’t No Easy Way” and “Complicated Situation” fall somewhere between The Stones’ acoustic blues and the era’s folkier side, while “Still Suspicion Holds You Tight” adds just a hint of psych to the mix to great effect.  Even though much of Howl takes full advantage of the studio to fill the sound out (Beatle-like in some parts as in “Gospel Song”), the songs are pure folk at their core.  BRMC seems determine to be able to play their new songs in cafes, on street corners, bus stops, whatever – at a moments notice.

Needless to say at this point, Howl comes on as something of a surprise (and hey, I liked BRMC well enough before this!).  All ears will be on their next to see if this was indeed a one-off or if we’re really listening to a “new” BRMC.  “New and improved”, actually.