Customer Reviews

200 Million Thousand

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

well i will admit i think this cd is really good and hope years to come the black lips will continue as a band.if you are new to these guys i would start with one of their other cds,this one is a little slower than some of their other records-let it bloom is probably their best record.

this group is great. if you like them, you will like this. i suggest you listen to snipets before buying blind, but if you give it any chance at all, it will grow on you. see them live, if possible, and be prepared to be trampled. they drive their crowds berserk

The Black Lips are not for looking over the rainbow or beyond the horizon or over the next hill; the Black Lips are for looking back. This is true enough for their latest release, 200 Million Thousand, and if you are cursorily familiar with their older work then you know what to expect here: flower punk (their term) played with sloppy abandon and lyrics about cruising around in cluttered cars, taking drugs, drinking, and other miscellaneous fun. A strain of nostalgia runs throughout the album. For the Black Lips nostalgia is most easily distilled in the time of their late teens, when the novelty of owning a car hasn't worn off and the appropriate response to screwing up is to "drink some more beers."

The Black Lips's sense of nostalgia has never been a drawback for the band, and if anything it has been their reason for existing. Everything from their easily recognizable influences to flat mono sounding production values help transport the listener back a few decades. Some of the songs do this beautifully, such as the bluntly titled "Drugs," about picking up women and driving around aimlessly while, you guessed it, on drugs. Many decry the Black Lips's snot nosed brat personas, but with lyrics that begin with the line, "my nose is a-runny" the Lips have little qualms over this guise. And why should they, it's worked well so far? "Starting Over" melds the easy sentiments of beginning anew sung over the jangly guitars of the Byrds. Like many of the high points on this album, and there are quite a few, these songs give the appearance of an old classic, now forgotten, that has serendipitously made its way onto the radio DJs mix.

However, what do you do when a band whose rason de'etre is to shuffle through used tunes, like most of us peruse Good Will stores, starts looking to "mature"? The results are not pretty. "The Drop I Hold," a song that drags its belly from beginning to end, is an embarrassing attempt to rap/sing over a vaguely hip hop beat. I'm all for mixing of genres and actually believe that since the nineties too many musicians have been hold up in their own musical corner, but here the song not only sounds out of place but the rhymes sound like they're delivered through a bad cold. Missing is any sense of storytelling found in the best hip hop, or even on other, superior Black Lips songs. The closer, "I Saw God," begins with a lengthy found sound of a kid ruminating on "God" that manages to be both pretentious and childish. Childishness is expected from the Black Lips, but I can't think of anyone who goes into a Black Lips album looking forward to mediocre ruminations on God.

In their attempt to recover sounds of old, the Black Lips have brought back something that should have stayed in the sixties: the front loaded album. It has been my unfortunate observation that too many sixties rock and rollers stuffed all the goods on side A in what I assume is the belief that when it comes time to flip the record the listener will be too stoned to stumble over to the record player. Similarly, the Black Lips may be hoping that you rip the songs you need and forget about the filler. For those of us who still listen to full albums this isn't an option, and by the time the Lips start rapping you will probably wish they would start singing about snotty noses some more.

i just efen love the godamn blacklips, so efen good i just gets crazy every time i listen to them, this album is great from head to toe, dat song again & again, & drop i hold, so good

Its ok. Typical of the indie rock grunge stuff. Repackaged 90s cool that the 29 year old guy working as a barista might think is real innovative.

The saviors of rock n roll are back, this time better than ever! Keeping rock n' roll dangerous. Get it!

Their stuff is always awesome but this uber awesome. This is definitely a must-own album of 2009. Imagine bumping this album while riding on your lowrider. Your coolness will exceed the coolness of any other lowrider driver in the streets. You're missing out on natural beauty if you are not listening to the Black Lips right now as you read amazon reviews.

They perfected the lo-fi vibe, but where are the songs? There is not a single memorable moment on this. It's not horrible. It's not bad, even. It's just kinda there. Seems to be a common thread among recently hyped bands. Maybe I'm missing something. This is my first experience with the Black Lips, so maybe they are living on a reputation? I'll check out their earlier stuff, but after hearing this, I'm in no hurry.

I'm slowly realizing that the glossy music press only recommends music that is intended for A) Fourteen-year-old girls who'll buy anything they're told to buy, and B) Aging Baby-Boomers looking for a nostalgia fix. Not to mention C) People who don't care all that much about music and are happy to listen to CD's recorded for groups A and B. The rest of us are constantly being sold music that just wasn't recorded with us in mind, which frustrates me, because I LOVE music. Anyhow, point being, I generally avoid anything the critics try to sell me. But every now and then, I mess up and buy an album that has been described in terms that make it sound like something I would listen to. Like when I bought this unfortunate little CD.

I should have known better. The Black Lips have been hailed as wild, passionate, unhinged saviors of lo-fi garage rock. Pretty cool, right? Except that they sound a more like some very bored and unimaginative kids from the suburbs, playing over-derivative worn-out and utterly SOULLESS imitations of some dusty Psychedelic records they found in their parents' attic. THIS ALBUM LITERALLY PUT ME TO SLEEP.

If you like retro-styled Psychedelic kinda music, listen to some early Brian Jonestown Massacre albums--Anton Newcombe was a GENIUS, before he lost his marbles. If Garage Rock is more your speed, check out any Jay Reatard project, or the Oblivians, or maybe even some early White Stripes. Better yet, check out some classic Hardcore bands from the early Eighties--like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, MDC... or any kind of Punk at all, come to think of it. You want some soulful blues-based Southern Rock? Try Heartless Bastards or Dax Riggs. I could go on all night, but the point is I don't want you or anyone else to waste your money on this CD. There's a lot of great bands out there that live up to the hyperbole around Black Lips, but unfortunately Black Lips are not one of those bands.