200 Million Thousand

On Febuary 24th home town heroes, the Black Lips release their fifth, 200 Million Thousand. I know a few people that have totally put down this album. I will not. I got a leaked copy early, but I will be buying the vinyl as soon as it arrives in stores.

First I want to say to the people hoping for another Good, Bad.. This is not your album. This is a girtty, dark, eerie, and funny album. I find a fair bit of similarities to The Animals. It has that bluesy 60s sound. Some people seemed surprised by it. I am not at all. Song like "Big Black Baby Jesus of Today," "Take My Heart," and "Trapped in the Basement" evoke this kind of songwriting. Also you have pur Black Lips songs like "Old Man" and "Again and Again." The songs mentioned are some of the true highlights of this record.

Then you have songs like "Drugs," which is a power-pop song. If anyone is surprised by this then you really don't pay attention to Atlanta music. At one point, maybe not as much anymore, there are or were as many power-pop bands as garage rock bands in Atlanta. Ones that are still around that have gotten some notoriety inlude Gentlemen Jesse and His Men and Babyshakes. This song doesn't come out of leftfield. Then you have "Starting Over," which is very La's-esque with the jangly guitars.

Cole Alexander fulfills a part of his musical taste by doing an almost early Three 6 Mafia style song, "The Drop I Hold." Some were thrown completely off by this one. I was not. Spooky loops with Cole "rapping" over them, is thuroughly entertaining.

I couldn't help but enjoy this album. It wasn't a shock if you really think about it. It's still the Black Lips being the Black Lips. It's most similarly like their second album if I could compare it to any of them, better production this time of course. Hey, I think it's a shit ton better than Microcastle.