Let It Bloom

Black Lips | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 22, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: In the Red Records
• ASIN: B000BOH92M
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,818 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

At the time Atlanta's Black Lips recorded Let It Bloom, the members were barely into their twenties, though they had already toured the US and Europe several times, released two albums, lost a lead guitarist in a car crash, built a rabid cult following and earned a reputation as one of the wildest live bands around. You don't want to stand too close to the stage at a Black Lips performance violence, nudity, arson and projectile vomiting are staples of their show. This grimy and chaotic garage-punk quartet truly doesn't give a fuck, something they've proved, intentionally or not, time and time again. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invigoratingly original jangle-pop blues-punk hybrid, February 5, 2007

By 

Alison Ross (Atlanta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Let It Bloom (Audio CD)

When I first bought this CD a few months ago, I treated it as a novelty. I played it on my small CD player before bedtime, reveling in the ragged tunes but not really fully captivated by the disc. But when the CD migrated to my actual stereo, I began to take more notice, and now this album has evolved into one of my top ten favorites.

The Black Lips' signature sound is a searing blend of 60s blues and jangle-pop, screeching 80s punk, and modern hipster garage rock, with nuanced dips into Motown and R&B. The tunes are a trashy mishmash of musical styles, and exude a sort of slimy charisma, the way they wrap catchy hooks and singable melodies in a sort of chain mail of dissonance. Each song exists as its own freaky entity, evoking just about every rock and roll era and genre without being in any way cheaply imitative or derivative. And the surrealistically profane lyrics only add to the sleazy charm of the songs.

I predict that the Black Lips will be the next Stooges. The Stooges were the punkish counterparts to more mainstream 60s bands, and indeed, the Black Lips carve a rougher, rawer soundscape than that of some of the sleeker, more packaged garage bands like The Strokes.

Of course, it doesn't matter if The Black Lips become more overtly popular, because they are so damn good you almost wish you could harbor the secret for yourself.

(Let me add that I am shocked that only three people have reviewed this album. For shame! Rolling Stone magazine even listed it among the best albums of 2006. Not that I give a ton of credence to Rolling Stone, but occassionally they get it right.)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars bloom me away!, January 18, 2006

By 

Rainedear - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Let It Bloom (Audio CD)

It's difficult to believe that this is the dirty, disgusting, punks who are so bad on stage that they make their selves spontaneously puke. Black Lips demonstrate in Let it Bloom that they are actually musicians; they have shown in this CD how they have matured in writing and producing music. Their sound is original, yet eerily familiar. When they get their act together, Black Lips can produce great stuff. Let's hope they choose to keep it up.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So dang good other, more well known, bands have begun robbing them., August 16, 2007

By 

A. Beck "[e-mail]" (Salem, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Let It Bloom (Audio CD)

If you truly love what is base and uncontrolable in rock and roll, if you understand that all which is shambolic messy and sick is still truly alive, just get this. Go see them.

Stooges comparisons are predictable, but this band has more in common with what inspired the stooges. I hear the Sonics, and others, and the Black Lips are equally as unlikely to succeed as any of those.

There is a song on the Queens Of The Stone Age album Era Vulgaris that lift's directly from "Can't dance" which is a real shame because the two bands are really nothing alike. But QOTSA, who have sold millions, clearly recognize and want to tap into what Black Lips have: genuine spunk and vulgarity.

Here comes some severely sad cynical prediction: 30 years from now these songs will be in commercials for products aimed at wealthy people wanting to tap into a mispent youth they never really reveled in, nor truly enjoyed.

I guess we'll see.