Customer Reviews

Let It Bloom

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.)

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.

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.

This band is much worse and much better than I thought. I didn't realize how "hard" their music sounded. I thought this was just another drone/early Velvets type sound, like many other bands, often with the word "black" in the title, but instead these guys are the real deal. If Captain Beefheart was cooler and born 30 years ago with the influences of the great modern psychedelic acts such as Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, My Morning Jacket, Flaming Lips, et al...and used the lo-fi feel along with amazingly energetic Punk, he would have made this kind of music. These guys are like a mix of the Velvets, Stones, Elvis, Beefheart, Dylan, Stooges, The Clash, Ramones, and a couple of the contemporary bands...Arcade Fire on much more LSD. Although people who are "too old" don't know, this is good drug music, but without being ashamed of it. "Hey, life is better this way...Do what you want to." Many young anarchist intellectuals and old, retired anarchists can unite with an album like this and think that maybe the dream of drugs, sex, and rock can be a reality. This is a glimpse into the reality of youth, but being aware enough to record the music during all the chaos of the revolution.

Some of the stuff on this album can be rough, but I think it's pretty rockin' and even trippy for how hard it is (I don't know many other bands who can rock that hard and still be soothing in some psychological way. They always seem off just slightly, but always on the right frequencies. I would even say they even transcend Neutral Milk Hotel on that intitial shock value from the sane cries of enlightenment, that speaks into your soul, without words, but with a kind of ugliness that just seems to make it that much more real and in your face. At times I think the intense metal feel will be too much in this album, but something always makes it just melodic enough.

People of all mental disabilities should listen to this, and if you didn't realize that you had one then this music will wake you up to the truth. If you can't dig this music, then you can't have fun and probably haven't done enough drugs. Have fun at your factory lives working for the authority; we'll do drugs and listing to our music.

I heard good things about the Black Lips and got this cheap.

For me, this is a little uncooked--basically 60s style garage rock with modern volume. This unvarnished music is just not for me, but I know enough about the genre to know by objective criteria, this is a good album

There's a reason that the Black Lips are talked about reverentially by many who spend their lives listening to pop music. The Lips' music cuts like a razorblade straight to the heart of what rock and roll is about at its most primitive. There is teenage rebellion, to be sure, and a menacing sense of danger and debauchery present in these tunes, but there's also witty humor, and above all, a great pride of musicianship and the importance of crafting fine songs. Much like The Rolling Stones, to whom they certainly owe a great deal, the Black Lips might come off like a bunch of skuzzed-out drunks, but there is a tremendous mix of intensity and melody to their music that will appeal to any fan of great rock music, and Let it Bloom is the best distillation of their musical ideology.

Let it Bloom explodes out of the gates with what is surely one of the all time great opening tunes: Sea of Blasphemy, much like Gimme Shelter on that similarly titled Stones album, declares singularly the Black Lips' mission. A short (95 seconds) buzzsaw of a song that threatens to drown amidst its own feedback, Sea of Blasphemy is the sound of a band playing with more passion that many groups summon up over the course of a whole career. That's the thing about this album, and the Lips in general--their obvious joy in playing this music is contagious to the listener. These songs are short and to the point, aimed directly at the pleasure center in the listener's brain. But that is not to say that the songwriting on this album is concerned with style over substance. The vocal harmonies on Dirty Hands, the surf-rock influenced guitar on Boomerang, and down-home feel of Take Me Home (Back to Boone) show that the Lips have one vast record collection. Let it Bloom is music for those times when you're itching for something hard, fast, dangerous, and guaranteed to put a smile on your face. And who doesn't want that?

Pure raw rock n' roll that leaves nothing to be desired. This band is a band to see live (known for notorious acts such as pee drinking, blood, bottle breaking and fire). This album is their first to actually capture the bands energy and let the listener feel it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This album is shockingly bad. It sounds like these jokers just recorded a band practice and published it. The end result is sub-amateur garbage. If only I could award zero stars.