Baby 81 (Sony)
Release Date: May 1, 2007
After The White Stripes shook up national consciousness to grimy garage rock in 2001, record labels scrambled to jump on the bandwagon. Enter Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Transparently signed to buck onto the tail-end of a trend, the L.A.-via-San Francisco trio certainly looked the role: skinny, unwashed and unkempt with a healthy flash of leather. Yet the boys never took off with the same gusto as many of their contemporaries, becoming a cult hit
akin to similar groups such as The Secret Machines and The Vines. If nothing else, BRMC is resilient. Their sophomore disc "Take Them On, On Your Own" became dead weight in 2003, as it was released when DIY-rock had became a novelty. They returned in 2005 with the acoustic-based "Howl," a large departure which proved there was a glimmer of talent behind the image. "Baby 81," the group's fourth release, was hyped as a return to the grungier
elements BRMC first based its sound upon, but with a strong sense of songwriting as illustrated in their most recent project.
Unfortunately, the album flops in both the heavy and the heady. Grasping for hard-rock beef, BRMC simply flounders hookless in a sea of distortion.
Liberally reinterpreting elements of The Velvet Underground, the boys still play lo-fi as if they had never heard of a producer.
This disregard for audio quality would be fine if the boys were able to create a unified vision of what "Baby 81" should be. An album wide in its diversity should be only attempted by professionals (i.e. The Clash, Paul Simon, etc.). But when a band dabbles in a genre, it should not be the license for total creative freedom. BRMC are clearly students of the craft, not masters, which leads to too much uncertainty and timidity in tackling certain compositional shifts. A key example is first single "Weapon of Choice." Every instrument plunks along pleasantly, but with no true cohesion in the mix. The same could be said of the track itself, which tries to blend both mellow and aggressive
sections. But the results are awkward instead of attacking aggressive sections, the boys tiptoe, feigning confidence. Not everything is bad. "Am I Only" turns out to be one of those British-sounding, sad-pretty acoustic tracks that can always win a band
points. But it is hard to view "Baby 81" as anything but an unimpressive album from an unimpressive group.
When he is not writing reviews, William Earl is anxiously awaiting the inception of his very own black rebel motorcycle club. E-mail him at
williamjearl@gmail.com.