Of course, many things have changed since 1990 when the Robinson brothers recorded their first album, “Shake Your Money Maker”, although a few do not. In both 1990 and 2024, it had only been a year since The Rolling Stones, the great source of inspiration for The Black Crowesthey had released an album, on both occasions it was received as the last, also in both 1990 and 2024 the music of The Black Crowes It is outside of any fashion, movement or current current. If in the nineties their classic rock was totally out of touch with the explosion of grunge and alternative rock, in 2024 their classic rock is in a parallel universe to those fragments of fifteen and thirty second songs that may or may not be accelerated to capture attention and be played in a Tik-Tok video.
So the brothers Chris and Rich Robinson continue to live apart from any current outside of what they do best, that is, reproducing in the best way those early seventies, where the dirty and sharp rock of the Stones rubbed shoulders with the southern rock, country rock and the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s hard rock. There has not been a band that emerged after 1974 that has sounded better, nor had better songs than the Black Crowes within those parameters. If you like this style, you like them The Black Crowesif not, you are not going to start liking it in 2024 with “Happiness Bastards”the band’s ninth album, better start with “The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion”.
Anyway “Happiness Bastards” It is a special album because it is the first after the last disbandment and several years in which the brothers have not even spoken to each other. After meeting to celebrate thirty years of “Shake Your Money Maker” They signed the peace pipe, they admitted that they are incompatible as people but much better as musicians when Rich’s riffs are sung by Chris, a chemistry emerging between them that each of them does not have on their own. Of course, this time, they have returned alone, there has not even been room for the faithful drummer Steve Gorman, the Robinson brothers have buried the hatchet but the Cuervos Negros are now just the two of them.
With more than fifty years on them, and several children in the middle, this return could have gone towards their more rural and acoustic side but they have decided not to. That The Black Crowes They are a rock & roll band, and one of the greats, and they have decided to turn the amps on to 11 and deliver an album that looks towards their fundamental work, the band’s first three albums, those that seemed like the spiritual heirs of “Sticky Fingers” y “Exile On Main Street”if instead of being recorded by some English people in exile, it had been done by some American southerners in Muscle Shoals accompanied by some powerful backup singers.
The point is that “Bedside Manners” opens the album without taking prisoners, slide riffs, high rhythm, pianos and a Chris who shows that he keeps his marvelous throat intact. In the chorus there is organ and backing vocalists at full throttle, pure Crowes. In “Rats And Clowns”, they continue to step on the accelerator, going for the jugular with an explosive chorus and a good solo from Rich. The first acoustic sounds in “Cross Your Fingers”, but the calm waters are short-lived until Rich’s riffs appear again and Chris once again struts like a peacock showing his tail.
“Wanting And Waiting” It’s a great song, you can’t deny it, the thing is that it sounds so much like Cuervos Negros that they may have recomposed “Jealous Again”. The disc up to this point is of notable height, its only problem being the same as that of the “Hackney Diamonds” of the Stones, the album bites and sees them regain their form but you miss a little less shine in the production (here by Jay Joyce), and more decadent dirt as if it were recorded in the basement of, say, the château of Villa Nellcôte.
They take their first break with “Wilted Rose” which sees them delve into country blues terrain that suits them perfectly, being a collaboration with singer Lainey Wilson, who has also worked with Joyce. “Dirty Cold Sun”is another hit to take into account, between southern rock-type girl choirs and one of its most powerful riffs, while in “Bleed It Dry” returns to the scruffy blues rock of the classic Stones, harmonica solo included, proving that the Robinsons are the torchbearers of a dying breed.
“Flesh Wound” is much more original, and sees the Crowes close to power pop, if rock guitars with slide were used in this genre, although in “Follow The Moon” They look again in their most obvious mirror, the Stones of the classic period. The end comes with “Kindred Friend”, the only ballad on the album, but one that is not seen in “She Talks To Angels” but rather has a pop edge, as if it were the work of Elton John from the early seventies.
For the first time on the entire album, Chris leaves the commonplace to talk about something that really matters to him: “Dude, where have you been? / I guess it’s been a while / Through thick and thin / And many more times / You always make me smile”. And he may be talking about an old friend, a lover or even his audience, but what we all read between the lines is that while he sings he is looking out of the corner of his eye at Rich, making it clear that beyond their family bond, Their musical bond continues to work perfectly, even if, as always, outside the time in which they live. This “Happiness Bastards” It falls a little short of that original trilogy but can look into the eyes, or above them, of the rest of their discography.