I’d be foolish to spend too much of this review explaining how Black Mountain’s Wilderness Heart doesn’t quite measure up to its predecessor, 2008’s In The Future, and yet I can’t help myself, so I’ll just get that part out of the way right now. In The Future is magical and monumental, and despite its title, feels like a gateway to a past dimension where the 1970s were actually a mass hallucination orchestrated by an ancient civilization (not unlike Philip K. Dick’s theory that the the present is a hallucination of 1st Century Romans in VALIS). Wilderness Heart, however, is “merely” a pretty good album that sounds like it was made by a retro-minded but forward-thinking rock n’ roll band from right here in plain old 2010.
Right away on opening track “The Hair Song,” Black Mountain announces that we’ll be spending much of the next 42 minutes in a relatively ordinary realm. The groove is jerky and pleasant enough to make your chin dance a little, and maybe your hips too, but probably not your feet- though it does prove how hard drummer Josh Wells can drive a song without seeming to break a sweat. Singers Stephen McBean and Amber Webber happily share lyrics like “Let the whole world turn you on” and “Bang bang the drums, children/ having their fun with the blues,” sounding like a barefoot Southern rock band kicking off a sunny afternoon set at Bonnaroo- more Black Crowes than Black Sabbath. “The Hair Song” is a bit jarring for a listener like me who fell in love with the band when they were ass-kicking neo-Pagan warlocks with only subtle traces of mellow hippie warmth…but I ain’t mad at it, either. Continue reading ‘Black Mountain: Wilderness Heart’
