Album Details

• Artist: The Black Lips
• Album: 200 Million Thousand
• Label: Vice
• Year of Release: 2009
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2009-03-20

Media

Black Lips maintain their penchant for sludgy, trebly mayhem on this, their fifth disc, but add new touches that suggest an itch to be more than agents provocateurs...or at least they have gotten better on their instruments.  "200 Million Thousand," may be their best record or, a transition record. Either way it is greasy and rocking, the band's feet still firmly planted in the daemonic garage.

Some slightly buried pop hooks, slower but harmonic tempos, and even a little white-boy rap are creeping into the mix. Black Lips could not have written tunes like "Trapped in a Basement" and "The Drop I Hold" prior to this rescord, and while they sure could have and did write songs like "Big Black Baby Jesus of Today," their irreverence now seems less like a deliberate fuck you as a fuck you with a purpose. Shit, isn't that the reason behind punk, the difference between GG and Iggy?

This all means a deepening, not a mellowing. "Short Fuse" "Starting Over" and "I Saw God" are sure to horrify and please; this is a band that remains the bastard children of Roky, Sky and Charlie. I still say they are the best band alive, but no one has listened yet, so why keep saying it? Buy "200 Million Thousand" or don't; it wins either way.

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