The new BRMC...

Posted by: Simon Perry on 04 September 2003

What's it like then? Any good?
I notice a lot of people have been buying it.
I quite enjoyed the first one, without falling in love with it.
Simon
Posted on: 04 September 2003 by trickytree
Simon.

I realy rate the first album and will be getting the new album this weekend. However....there are alot of tracks on BRMC for a single LP and I find the sound quite compresed, I'm hoping that Take Them On, On Your Own is a double LP

Paul
Posted on: 04 September 2003 by ErikL
Thoughts from The Village Voice (NYC):

"If the Raveonettes are wearing borrowed leather jackets and smoking stolen cigarettes and dreaming about getting out of here, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have left home and f*cked up for three or four years, taking themselves with attendant seriousness—they're from San Francisco, one's a second-generation musician, etc. Take Them On, On Your Own is almost twice as long as Chain Gang of Love and has three fewer tracks, but that's because they're making rock songs, not pop tunes. As the MC5-esque title insinuates, politics come up, more provocation and sloganeering than Bono didacticism, but the big theme is dissociation: from your government, your parents, your generation, too cool to flick the lighter yourself but happy to see it burn.

Of course, all that apathy doesn't rule out swagger. The slow-lighting opener and single "Stop" asserts, "We don't like you/We just want to try you," but it's backed by an army of guitars and an ocean of dry ice. "Six-Barrel Shotgun" repeatedly reassures us that no one will be killed even as it plows down everything in its path—the sheer mass of sound, the density, the volume, the elaborate little codas at the end of every song are designed to impress and certainly do. "Rise or Fall" seamlessly welds all the pieces together into something shiny and unstoppable: submerged vocals, skittery guitars, droning bass, tension-release structure, driving drums. There's even an abrupt gear shift that works—the acoustic, a cappella "And I'm Aching." And unlike most noise-focused bands, BRMC do not skimp on drum talent, which lets them sprawl out further and chance more adventurous song structure. My favorite of these is "U.S. Government." It was originally entitled "Kill the U.S. Government," but, well, you know how things are—'80s revivals will always have their limitations."

More here.
Posted on: 05 September 2003 by Simon Perry
Thanks for the comments. I think on balance I won't get it then, as people's opinions here seem to echo what some of the reviews I've read have said...namely that its "goodish, but...."
Posted on: 05 September 2003 by Simon Perry
27 miles in 2.5 hours? Beacoup. Bad. Shit.
I was once involved (not driving) in a multiple pile up on the A3 and my colleague who started it managed to back the traffic up from Putney to Tolworth. Anyway, I shall avoid the new BRMC, and have infact just ordered the new Marilyn Manson off tinternet instead.
Cheers
Simon