"Specter At The Feast" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

This album kind of arrived to me as a surprise really. While browsing, I saw this vintage looking cover and I took a look at it. The cover art is cool and their name is cool. Frankly, having both of these things does make me interested in your band. Cool cover art and band names that aren't horribly stupid seem to be a thing of the past honestly.

In this day and age, most of us can check the googles for any information in an instant. So, a quick google search of this band showed they have been at the music game for quite some time. They were described as a Lo-Fi indie rock band. OK, this is something that might be enjoyable to me, so I left with it.

It really appears to me that the term Lo-Fi has been co-opted like my can of Coke in the office fridge. To me, Lo-Fi has meant the opposite of Hi-Fi, i.e. less than clear sounding. I can't really tell you what it's supposed to mean now, but it certainly means something else.

The sound quality on this album really is very high quality, which to me precludes it from considered Lo-Fi. Perhaps it just wasn't recorded in 7.1 Dolby Surround?

The band is going for a full on grooving on this record. There are very few intricately played rhythms on this album. Very straight forward rock. It's very hard to listen to this and not bob your head along to the music. They have done a spectacular job in that regard.

The music itself feels a bit like the Beatles if they had the same musical equipment as Nirvana. The songs are simple and there is no star of the band. They are all a cog in the engine room. This is a band where one plus one plus one equals more than three, probably at least equaling Pi R Squared.

All in all this is a fun record. It would definitely be a mood album. There is a very dark, sort of Seattle type mood going on here. Beyond the overdriven thump thump four/four time rockers, there are a couple of piano ballads that break up the overdriven assaults and make this album more fun to listen to in a single setting. (Please note all musicians reading this: dynamics are a critical thing in your craft. If you can't play piano, that's fine, just put in an open chord ballad or two...you can even arpeggiate the chords and it'll make your rocking songs rock harder.)

Year: 2013
Genre: Rock, Indie Rock

Tracklisting:
1) Fire Walker
2) Let The Day Begin
3) Returning
4) Lullaby
5) Hate The Taste
6) Rival
7) Teenage Disease
8) Some Kind of Ghost
9) Sometimes the Light
10) Funny Games
11) Sell It
12) Lose Yourself