 This new nugget from The Black Lips comes with a much more conventional ‘studio’ sound than the very, very dirty and messy recordings that we know them for. Perhaps this should be expected since 'Los Valientes Del Muendo Neuvo', the allegedly live album, came out sounding so crisp and clean and so opposite to the murky early gambits. That being said, the new approach is still a million miles from overproduction. A haphazard, messy mentality remains as an integral part of the band and the noisy clatter with which we are familiar still shines through.
Though it might be protested by some more purist fans, what we have seen since this change occurred has been consistently high quality song writing, with 'Cold Hands' being no exception. As usual, simple, energetic drums drive on throughout the whole track while two guitars and the bass play their own way around fairly basic chords building a wall of sound to get lost in which doesn’t slack or lose momentum through the never quite decipherable rolling verses and - yet another - fantastic chorus. They keep things simple: the closest they come to technical flare being a very brief sort of guitar solo which seems to be there more for the sake of making noise than guitar indulgence.
So 'Cold Hands' makes the new album seem very promising. Though having undergone a bit of an evolution in the way the song is presented to you, you’re still getting that same old Black Lips quality of shouting and bawling, banging snare drum and guitars going everywhere all revolving around what is, at the core, an awesome song.
Alistair Clark
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| Coding: Darren Burrows