First published by Midlands Rocks www.themr.co.uk, September 2011
Listen to this album once. Then have a rummage through your loose change and select a coin. Now toss it in the air. Heads, you’ll hate it. Tails, you might like it. A bit. Maybe. You think…
That seems to be the first impression consensus that has emerged to greet the arrival of album number two from Black Country Communion. Understandable, really, given its departure from the template used for the debut. Certainly, on a first spin, the accessibility and commercial sensibility of the debut appear to be absent.
Darker, moodier, predominantly minor in key, with Glenn Hughes’ vocal melodies eschewing clichés and standard intervals to move along, frequently, in tension-inducing semi tones, this is an altogether much more serious affair than its predecessor.
And yet at the same time, in many ways, it’s almost a blue print for how to fashion a classic 70s rock album. Shades of Deep Purple, unsurprisingly perhaps, given Hughes’ lineage, hints of Yes, mostly courtesy of Derek Sherinian’s fluttering keyboard ornamentation and even the epic stomp of Kashmir can be discerned, or at least its distilled essence, during Save Me. Similarly, The Battle For Hadrian’s Wall could be a distant cousin of Zeppelin’s The Battle of Evermore.
However, it should be understood that there is no plagiarism going on here, no third-rate rehashing of classics from the 70s’ glorious hard rock canon. These are touchstones only, mere reference points from which the world’s most credible super group have created a truly special album.
Kevin Shirley, surely, by now, rock and metal’s undisputed producer par excellence, has crafted a sonic masterpiece. Bonham’s drums sound not only crisp but positively gargantuan and Hughes has rarely sounded better. As for Joe Bonamassa, it’s often forgotten that he is a singer of no mean ability and a welcome reminder can be found on the cuts where he takes the lead vocal.
With song-writing credits on no less than seven of the songs, Shirley’s contribution is clearly of huge significance and this is a partnership that heralds great expectations for album number three.
Depth, variety, diversity, light, shade and texture are all here in abundance and if, as mentioned earlier, the instant gratification of the first album is missing, somewhat, the ultimate pleasure from repeated plays makes it more than worth the effort. Music for grown-ups, to be sure, and connoisseurs of the genre will be delighted with Black Country Communion 2, far superior to the debut and probably the decade’s first truly classic album.