Explanation of ‘Both Sides of the Coin’ Reviews
Tails:
All art is based on borrowing. You can see this in the YouTube videos calling out Led Zeppelin for plagiarism and you can hear it in the way you think The Rolling Stones must’ve ripped off many an old, and perhaps more deserving, blues guitarist that never recorded his licks. That’s not to say this is wrong, it just is, a byproduct of the nature of artists and the great flow of ideas. Pablo Picasso, famously may or not have uttered the phrase “good artists borrow, great artists steal,” and I tend to agree with the Pabs, or whoever had the good sense to credit this truism to someone who could popularize it on his coattails.
With Natural Child’s new LP, “Hard in Heaven” I was reminded of this idea and how subjective the idea of borrowing can be. As music fans, we often credit some artists and fault others for the same attempts.
But, in our defense, there seems to be an identifiable line between music that recreates the past and music that is anachronistic, and the difference, while largely a subjective one, gets noticed by the collective. Anachronistic albums, though they borrow heavily from the past, are arguably influential in spite of themselves. They succeed by making their music a martyr to a specific time or style, often in a way that comments on the modern form indirectly through a stubborn, hands-over-the-ears refusal of the present.
Examples of this type of album that come to mind are The Ramones’ self-titled debut, The Strokes “Is this It?” and The White Stripes “Elephant.” In these three cases, the albums each dragged an older style, ’50s girl group pop, ’60s/’70s New York rock ‘n’ roll and ’60s garage blues, respectively, into the moment. But, they were embraced in part because they were helmed by musicians who, in an attempt to construct the past, couldn’t separate themselves and their place in time from the songwriting.
Ariel Pink – who was recently granted Pitchfork’s third cover story – is a good example of this set. His band, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, has risen to a high level of underground acclaim due to his prowess as an oddball frontman who also seems to have a Quentin Tarantino-sized record collection full of rarities and a talent for translating them through his own warped vocabulary.
Natural Child, on the other hand, fall heavily on the side of recreation. Each song on their new disc “Hard in Heaven,” their third in the last two years, can be sized up against another band or influence. During “Rock Bottom” I heard slices of The Stooges, The Rolling Stones and even Danzig. “Low Down Blues” has a distinctively Neil Young sort of groove, “B$G P$MP$N” recalls “Johnny B. Goode” and “What You Gonna Do,” perhaps the album’s strongest track, conjures up the glam gods T-rex with shades of Deep Purple.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this album, I did. I’m predisposed to classic rock by nature of growing up with it. (I was early on the Wolfmother bandwagon, will defend Boston and have heard more than one Rainbow disc.)
At the very least, Natural Child show that they’re adept at painting with all these different shades. However, they fail to bring in anything new. This may be more noticeable, as lyrically, none of songs are complex. The Pink Floyd-ish jam and album title track, “Hard in Heaven” spends a lot of time focusing on the phrase “don’t take that ride,” for what purpose other than to avoid an instrumental track, I don’t know.
But, the dissapointing thing is that they don’t seem to know either. I don’t know this for sure, but I know it, somehow, and that’s really all that matters.
Heads:
The best and most original song I’ve heard from Natural Child is called “Crack Mountain,” a tune – released as a 7″ in 2011 – that sadly was left off of their first LP, the aptly titled “1971,” and it gets the vote because it boasts the excellent line “I’ve been smoking crack with my friends,” sung with tongue firmly in the center of the mouth.
The force of this song is the strength of the band. “Crack Mountain” didn’t take itself too seriously, rocked like a Motorhead track, and since it didn’t appear to be trying too hard, signaled the best might be ahead for Natural Child.
Flash forward to 2012 and Nashville is the new now. A hot indie microscene perhaps most notable for on-the-cusp psuedo-stars Jeff The Brootherhood. But, with “Hard to Heaven,” Natural Child seem to be sticking to their guns, refusing to branch out the way some of their peers have to cater to the wider, interested audience.
Ambition aside, “Hard in Heaven” makes it clear that the band has only one goal: offering the straight deal. It’s at best a fun, dynamic album that doesn’t waste time with pretense. The bass grooves are thick, the guitar solos squawk and the lead singer, though he doesn’t stretch out, hits the perfect growl with each song, pivoting from Mick Jagger yelps to southern rock cornball crooning with dexterity.
Natural Child seem primarily concerned with starting the party and hitting their groove. You can hear this in the way the songs don’t pussyfoot around. “Derek’s Blues” and “Laid, Paid, and Strange” rifle right into big riffs and scrappy sing-a-longs.
It’s the straight deal as advertised, and it’s a fun ride. It’s like crack in a way, it’s fun while you’re listening, but later, it’s hard to view it the same way.
VERDICT: Tails
Pete Rizzo can be reached at prizzo@thoughtpollution.com.