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At its most basic, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's fourth studio album is a return to the band's fuzz-rock ways, after the detour into folksy Americana that dominated 2005's Howl. Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been's trademark, Stonesy guitar licks are there from the get-go, quickly dispelling any doubt that BRMC have forgotten how to rock out. But by the time the decidedly Oasis-like "Window" segues into the detuned, grunge-era guitars of "Cold Wind," it's clear that this is no Take Them On, On Your Own, Vol. 2. The artistic and critical success they had with Howl has obviously whet BRMC's appetite for experimentation, and much of Baby 81 finds the band leavening their garage-rock riffage with heavy doses of power pop, post-punk, and even arena rock.
The results are mixed. "Window," built around a stomping piano hook, starts strong but wears thin over its six-minute running time, while "All You Do Is Talk" feels like a slightly embarrassing stab at U2-style grandeur. "Not What You Wanted," on the other hand, is the closest thing BRMC have ever done to a pop song, and it's a standout, as Been and Hayes flex some of the songwriting muscles they built on Howl. Still, nothing on Baby 81 quite tops the stomping beats and squalling guitars of classic BRMC tracks like "Berlin" and "Weapon of Choice." As good as Howl was, it's good to hear these guys bringing back the fuzz.
- Andy Hermann
04.27.07
Videos from Baby 81
Review
All Music Guide Review
After completely (and successfully) rehauling their sound for 2005's Howl, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club shelved their low-key Americana leanings, reburied their roots music influences, and moved to a new version of their old, noisy sound. Baby 81 is a big rock record with walls of crunchy guitars, thundering drums, and lots of volume that sounds like a cross between Oasis and the Jesus and Mary Chain at their most conventional. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide
Track Listing
Credits
- Dan Russell
- Management
- Ashley Newton
- A&R
- Nick Jago
- Group Member
- Mike Prosenko
- Design
- Peter Lind Hayes
- Group Member
- Robert Levon Been
- Group Member
- Tessa Angus
- Photography
- Courtney Brooke
- Collage
- Ronny Hunger
- Treatments
- Rick Parker
- Engineer, Mixing
- Michael Been
- Producer
- Brian Gardner
- Mastering
Notes
From RCA: With their 2005 critically acclaimed album, Howl, BRMC proved their stalwart musicianship with their own brand of stripped down Americana and are now deftly transitioning back towards the color-saturated wash of guitars that made fans fall for the band in the first place. Baby 81, named after an infant admitted to the hospital in the wake of 2004’s tsunami who was claimed by nine different mothers until it found its way back to its own family, is an ambitious, powerful, emotional, guitar-driven rock n’ roll record that is guaranteed to get people jumping and thinking.
The opening track “Took Out a Loan” and the Led Zeppelin-style beat driving “666 Conducer,” were recorded at the tail end of Howl’s Los Angeles sessions. The first single, “Weapon of Choice,” a collaborative effort by the two songwriters, Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been. It is an anthemic and jagged-riffed track that cleverly hides a wall of acoustic guitars behind electrics.
Clocking in at 9 minutes and 11 seconds, their longest song to date, “American X” features an inspiring and sprawling mid-section. And there is plenty more to be inspired by on Baby 81: the stompy, dreamy “Windows,” the buoyant “It’s Not What I Wanted,” the gorgeous drone of “All You Do Is Talk,” and the ‘90s-inflected, grungy rock of “Cold Wind.” Baby 81 ends with “Am I Only,” a song Hayes’ wrote in his late teens, a beautiful, mid-tempo track that’s fleshed out with strings and xylophone.
Although the record ends with a track Hayes’ wrote back in his late teens, the sequence of the record is almost perfectly chronological from the first song recorded for the album to the last. Been adds, “I know a lot of bands don’t do that, but I think it makes the album feel more alive, it’s like a living breathing organism”.
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