In a 1973 interview, exploitation film pioneer
Herschell Gordon Lewis
decried the rise of the then-novel phenomenon of hardcore porn movies, saying, "After you've shown all the aberrations, what do you do next?"
The Black Lips
have never ventured into the adult film industry, but a look at their catalog suggests they would commiserate with
Lewis
. The band's defining blend of garage punk sleaze and pseudo-psychedelic murk reached its peak on 2005's
Let It Bloom
and 2007's
Good Bad Not Evil
, and though they've made some good albums since then, their efforts to refine their sound and obsessions into fresher territory on 2011's
Arabia Mountain
and 2014's
Underneath the Rainbow
haven't been entirely successful. In search of new fields to conquer,
the Black Lips
take a detour into fractured country music on their ninth studio album, 2020's
Sing in a World That's Falling Apart
. Anyone who fears
are aiming to join
Dan + Shay
,
Blake Shelton
, or
Jason Aldean
on the C&W charts can relax; despite the abundant twang in these songs and the frequent appearance of steel guitar, this is just as eccentric as you would expect from
, a seriously bent collection of country tropes broke to bits, reassembled, and filtered through a haze of cheap liquor and lord knows what else. As a change of pace and/or a new musical direction,
is more successful than most folks familiar with their back catalog would expect. The band sound unexpectedly comfortable with the lope of classic country, and while the credits are unclear about who played the steel licks on these tracks, whoever did them knows what to do. When they want to,
can write a decent country melody, like "Chainsaw" and "Georgia," and they build up a good head of steam on the rollicking "Angola Rodeo" and "Dishonest Men." They tackle the ultra-rare
Velvet Underground
number "Get It on Time," and "Hooker Jon" is certainly recommended to fans of
Peter Grudzien
. As one might expect, a great deal of
is being played for laughs, either in broad strokes or with tongue in cheek, and it's ultimately a matter of taste about how many chuckles you'll get from this. But it's commendable that
are trying to find new things to do after 20 years of balancing order and chaos, and while no one should suggest they take any long-term bookings on the honky tonk circuit, if someone wanted to do an indie remake of
' Two Thousand Maniacs, this version of
might be the right guys to play the musicians. ~ Mark Deming