3LB
10-30-2009, 06:18 AM
I didn't get into Wolfmother until a couple of years after they came out. I thought they were OK, but they definitely took their cues from The White Stripes, so it was kinda redundant in a way. Also redundant were riffs that you just know you had to have heard before, so you couldn't completely sell out to the album, even if you found yourself nodding along. They have a 'new' one out, Cosmic Egg, which mines the same classic hard rock vein that their first. This time though, they've added some twists, like keyboards and songs that are more psychadelic acid rock jam than the riff driven fair of the first album. Cosmic Egg would sound somewhat fresh if Black Mountain hadn't already released a similar album last year. But I do like it - feels like a comfortable old pair of jeans and denim jacket with the sleeves torn off. The lead singer still sounds like Jack White (albeit w/o the range), but I find these songs more interesting than the last White Stripes album, and this is actually a better album than that last Black Mountain album. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with that first Wolfmother album, but I do believe I like this slightly different approach better. I say slightly, as this music still features its share of chugging riffs, but it sounds closer to being a paean to acts like Deep Purple or Black Sabbath than it does a rippoff of White Stripes. I will say that these guys are pretty good tunesmiths. They even get a tad whistful on a couple of tunes. But its all too familiar a formula. I could see people feeling either way about this album. If they're a huge fan, this is more of the same, and that's exactly what might turn casual fans off, more of the same. This actually has an immediate appeal for me, but like that Black Mountain album from a year ago, it might not have too much staying power. That's the problem with the retro rock motif.