Think of this: An A-Ha-like video, consisting of lots of crazy
\ndrawings\/cartoon-esque action, with an insistent guitar solo on
\ntop. Images of lots of people in a crowded warehouse, jumping and
\ndiving as a band rocks it’s way through another song. Yeah, these
\nimages sound a bit MTV, but they are exactly what I think of when I
\nlisten to this album.<\/p>\n
And that’s not a bad thing.<\/p>\n
Black Lab’s first CD,
\nYour Body Above Me<\/i>, offers nothing less then radio-perfect,
\nguitar-driven rock. They are reminiscent of U2 and Radiohead, but
\nmanage to keep an identity of their own by moving flawlessly
\nthrough small nuances of the rock genre (from lost love song to
\npolitical tune to confessing love ballad).<\/p>\n
The CD opens with the first single from the album, “Wash It
\nAway.” It is one of those rare songs where the repetition of a
\nsound or phrase (in this case the word “away”, which is used at the
\nend of almost every line) does not drive the listener away but
\ninstead, creates a uniformity which makes the song easily
\naccessible upon first listen. Lead singer Paul Durham masterfully
\ndelivers the song, making it pure ear candy. (Yummy!)<\/p>\n
The second song, “She Loves Me,” suffers from bad track
\nplacement — “Wash It Away”‘s repeated “aways”, make this song seem
\nrepetitive and uninspired when the first lines end with the same
\nword. The song also has the feeling of album filler – nothing
\nspectacular, nothing too bad, but just a song to pass the time
\nbetween tracks.<\/p>\n
Tracks 3 and 9, “X-Ray” and “All The Money In The World”, are
\npure dance-club fodder. The use of distortion mike to add a second
\nvoice to the songs is done really well, and when coupled with an
\nawesome rhythm and guitar-driven melody, you are practically forced
\nof your seat and into boogie mode. The political message behind
\n“All The Money In The World” extends one’s interest in it as a song
\ninto another dimension, due to it’s depth of lyrical content.<\/p>\n
Another of my favorite tracks on the album was released as the
\nsecond single. “Time Ago” is a wonderful ballad whose great lyrics
\n(which emphasize small, wonderful images as being the things to
\nremember about a relationship) are coupled with another awesome
\ndelivery of the somewhat difficult melody. The similarity between
\nthis song and a U2 ballad give the opportunity for
\nmis-identification of the band (especially on the radio, which is
\nwhat happened when I had a friend listen to this track), but I
\nthink the association is positive.<\/p>\n
Track 10, “She Sleeps With Angels”, is quite a surprise – I
\ninstantly thought of the Black Crowes due to the title, and I was
\nimpressed with the familiarity I felt that I had with the song. It
\nsounded like something I had heard before. When listening to this
\ntrack, I think that the flaws I find with the album are most
\napparent – it is not inventive whatsoever. In fact, every song
\nsounds like something I have heard before, only with a different
\ndelivery.<\/p>\n
This does not detract from the fact that the disc is wonderful,
\nthough. A lack of inventiveness does not take away from awesome
\nmusicianship and a general cool sound. If you see this CD, pick it
\nup and take it for a spin — especially if you find it used or in a
\nbargain bin. It is not something you’ll regret.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":24812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5987],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36016","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-black-lab","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36016"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36016"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}