My revirew of Warpaint!
Diary of a Crowes fan It is now two and a half weeks since I moved to Sydney, the big city. Brand new city, brand new people. The road is rough, and I still didn't find a home, and am staying on a couch at a friend's home. Much like the Crowes, the last year in my life was transition, and these days the transition comes to a peak. But all along, the fact that a brand new Black Crowes album was coming, and especially with Luther on guitar, got me dreaming. Literally. It got to a point that in the last week I kept dreaming about the album at nights. I refused to listen to the samples, because I wanted the full experience of the album. I woke up at 6:30am this morning, still on the couch, and had to travel an hour and a half to the other side of the city in order to look at a room which I might rent. Of course, the only thing that was on my mind throughout the entire train ride was those new sounds that are going to enter my life. I listened to Joni Mitchell and John Hartford along the way, and watched other people's homes go by in the morning sun. The train back to the city was cathartic. Although it was now getting closer and closer, and I waited for this album for so long, I no longer felt anxious. I had a smile on my face, knowing that even if it will take me another month to find four walls and a ceiling, I'm on my way home now, to the sounds of the Crowes. I got off the train at Town Hall station in the middle of the city, and made my way to the record shop with a smile across my face. As I walked in, a woman who worked there was just organising the new releases - among them, of course, Warpaint. I walked out of the shop with a big grin on my face, and went to the nearby Hyde Park. Sydney has many parks, and this one lies in the middle of the CBD. There was not a cloud in the sky, and I located myself on the grass in a perfect pastoral combination of place and time. I pulled out the album, ripped the nylons and studied carefully every aspect of this product. I pulled out my CD player, put it in, and started to trip into our common home. For me, this album picks up where Three Snakes and The Band left off. Paul Stacey's fingerprints are obvious, and I'm just thrilled that the brothers have found someone who shares their vision and with whom they can develop throughout the years. In this album, the Crowes feel once again like a band, and not like the Brothers and a few other people. This is quite surprising, as these sessions were recorded with two new members. Adam is doing a very good and solid work throughout. Luther's chemistry with Rich is just amazing. He fits the Crowes like Wiser Time fits Ballad in Urgency. I once wrote, after the Circle Sound shows, that if Luther would one day join the Crowes, then that day would be a great day for music. Today is a great day for music. Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution sounds much better in the album version with the extended intro and the keys higher in the mix. Quite frankly, I don't know why they bothered with a shorter version as a single. The second song, Walk Believer Walk, really caught me by surprise. Rough and nasty hard blues-rock song, with Chris showing off his range magnificently. This song can very easily fit before Black Moon Creeping in a long jam in live shows. Oh Josephine is the Pawnshop of the album. A beautiful autumn song that you can just get lost into. and if Oh Josephine is Pawnshop, than Evergreen would have to be the Evil Eye of the album: a mid-tempo rocker that kick you upside the head, and that sounds like nothing you've ever heard before. Wee Who See The Deep sets out to explose even more psychedelic southern rock. The Crowes are not rehashing the same old thing. They are exploring, but with every bit of connection to their music heritage. Then you enter Locust Street, with the beautiful sound of the mandolin. A perfect country ballad, which leaves you completely disconnected from the outside world. Don't try to cross any roads while listening to this song. It is a road on its own. And then starts Movin' On Down The Line. One of the most unique songs the Crowes have done. It starts as psychadelic as Spider In The Sugarbowl Blues, until it explodes to a full-blown classic-rock classic Crowes extravaganza, with a great climax solo by Luther. Wounded Bird continues the spirit of the end of the previous song, with a swift, charismatic rock song which will become an instant anthem in the live shows. It is followed by God's Got It, which goes back to the blues. Great cover, which gives the band a chance to strech their blues organs. But nothing in the first nine songs had prepared me to the final two songs. Chris always had a flare with road songs, and in his solo years he developed it into troubadorian tales of past in the south (for example, Train Robbers). Both There's Gold In Them Hills and Whoa Mule continue this tradition with every bit of flare as you would expect. There's Gold In Them Hills is a heart-ripping ballad, a sad story of myths and unfulfilled dreams. Whoa Mule carries the same vein, but with much more optimism. A man sings to his mule that, we are maybe dirty, but we're dreaming, as a way to stay optimist that one day he will get to his desired destination. In this album, the Crowes understand that it is not a destination which they desire. It is the road itself. The road and the music is their, and our, home.