Flamboyant yet droll, swaggering, fuzzy, sizzling, meaty, dark’n’ dirty rock in this 12th studio LP from the veteran Portland band fronted by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, here joined by guests including Pixies’ Frank Black, Slash and Debbie Harry. It’s a return to more familiar territory than 2020’s experimental and very lengthy Tafelmuzik album, and 30 years on, while not likely to garner the peak popularity or critical acclaim of the early 2000s period of rock-pop such such as Bohemian Like You, it’s a fun listen with blistering guitar sounds and some witty asides capturing modern life’s bewildering absurdities. Standouts include Danzing With Myself (with Frank Black added extra body the sound) and lyrics such as: “Some days it's just so obvious / Some days insidious/ But half the people alive today are – / Are fucking idiots”); Slash giving it full throttle on I’d Like To Help You With Your Problem; the strange but dramatic whispering final track I Will Never Stop Loving You, that swells up with Debbie Harry singing on the chorus. There’s plenty of rockin’, smokin’ catchy guitar cuts such as The Summer of Hate (“I was born in the summer of love / And I've lived through the summer of hate” - sings 56-year-old Courtney), Teutonic Wine, the fuzzy guitar and brassy punch of Root of All Evil, or the down-and-dirty groove of the repeating Alcohol and Cocainemarijuananicotine. Out on Sunset Blvd Records / Beat The World.
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