Disc 4 is...In the Future
Artist: Black Mountain
Year of Release: 2008
How I Came To Know It: I think Black Mountain is one of those bands I found on my own. I had seen it as a prominent pick at a local record store, and I had read some good reviews so I took a rider on them. Also, you have to admit it is pretty cool cover art.
How It Stacks Up: Black Mountain only has two albums to my knowledge, but lots of side projects. “In the Future” is their first. I have both, but I started with “In the Future” and worked backwards. I would say “In The Future” is the better record, but many have told me they feel the opposite. I briefly owned singer Amber Webber’s side project “Lightning Dust” after I fell in love with her voice. However, “Lightning Dust” is as bad as its title would suggest – I sold it before I even got through three listens.
Rating: 3 stars.
Black Mountain is a Vancouver band, but I don’t let how local a band is influence my opinion. That’s just a fun fact to know.
This is a hard album to rate, although when I first bought it I went on about it insufferably. It is good that the Odyssey is causing a more considered second visit.
On the one hand, it is a great new take on a lot of different seventies sounds, like Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, mixed in with a sort of new rock/indie sensibility.
On the other hand, this is a band that clearly takes themselves way too seriously. They want to be the next big thing, and their desire to be unique and new is painfully evident – so while they do achieve their own sound, it can sometimes be strained.
Having said that, you aren’t a failure in life simply because you aren’t as good as Rush or Black Sabbath or Pink Floyd. That is a pretty unfair comparison.
Some of the tracks are incredible, and I think highly innovative. Others sound like a music school project. This is all kind of summed up in the 16 minute plus “Bright Lights”. This song is great in places – particularly when writer Stephen McBean is getting his Sabbath guitar-riff groove on. In other places, it is weird in a good way – the crazy vocals of both McBean and Webber sound kind of darkly angelic, with a hint of blues. Then the same sounds take a turn for the weird – but in a bad way. Aimless synth sounds that just go on too long and don’t quite get anywhere. It is a sixteen minute song that should’ve been eight minutes, and a sound that is good, but could’ve been great.
As a sidebar, Amber Webber’s voice sounds so much like Crash Vegas Lead Singer Michelle McAdorey (yeah, I cheated and looked that name up) – I briefly thought they were the same person, forgetting almost twenty years had passed. We’ll get a little Crash Vegas later in the Odyssey...
Lastly – I’d like to point out that Black Mountain makes a cardinal sin on “In the Future” – pointless extra tracks. This time they take this to a whole new level, in the form of an EP of 3 songs called “Future Songs” included with the main LP (did I mention they were a tad pretentious?) The original album is 10 tracks, and given one of them is an epic, that’s plenty.
Attention budding rock and rollers – know when to say when.
Best tracks: Stormy High, Angels, Wucan.
3 comments:
I like about 3-4 Black Mountain songs and that's it. I do like their sound, but it reminds me too much of other, better bands.
I have a deep and abiding love for this album.
Truly this is the soundtrack to playing D&D.
Cat and I saw the Pink Mountaintops open for Bison BC last year. They're a bit psychedelic and are a side project of Black Mountain. Thanks for the review of this cd. I heard this band was heavier, and I wished they had played instead.
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