Wow! All I can say is wow! In these crazy times Black Stone Cherry has produced a monster of an album. ‘The Human Condition’ is an absolute triumph!
If you’ve followed the band as long as I have and been lucky enough to chat to the guys regularly and caught them in all their glory live then you’ll know that Black Stone Cherry is the real deal and have put out some spectacular music over the course of their career. Somehow though this mid-covid release seems to tie all of the strings together and has a maturity about it that you always knew they would get to after revisiting their roots on recent releases.
You want fire? You want passion tempered with soul? You want sugar sweet melodies and sing-along choruses? It’s all here as well as some incendiary guitar, bass that sets your body quivering and your foot tapping and drums that know that power and placement is the real key. It might also be the very best we’ve heard of Chris’ voice which seems to have an extra depth here.
Opener ‘Ringin’ in My Head’ is a killer track and hearing it here, it’s hard to believe that the single was previously passed over. As the band relates, it “was a song we had originally started to write back in 2017 and for whatever reason, it didn’t make the album at the time, but we loved the riff and melody. Fast forward to 2020, we were in the studio recording ‘The Human Condition’ and we decided to re-visit the song and re-work it a bit. It’s eerie that it fits into the current state of the world so well right now. It’s almost like the song knew when it should have been recorded and released, and we find beauty in that!” But strap yourselves in because that is just the beginning!
‘Again’ that follows briskly after is even more muscular and will be just as well received by fans, and ‘Push Down and Turn’ that follows that it is a song that pulls it all together, a killer riff, that effortless groove and a masterful use of space that is summed up perfectly on the press release as ‘crushing swamp-metal dynamics’ – I couldn’t have said it better! It’s also a song that covers the topic of mental health, and as Chris says “I suffer from manic depression and I have severe anxiety. I want to convey it’s okay to go to a doctor and talk about these issues. There is no shame or stigma there“.
‘When Angels Learn to Fly’ starts off like it might be a 80’s style ballad but Chris’ voice soon takes control and you hear some of the most melodic music these guys have put down. It’s majestic, sweeping and lays on a bed of wonderfully evocative guitar. It’s a song that a few years ago you might have thought a little out of place on a Black Stone Cherry release but here it just fits beautifully and the breakdown is a masterstroke. It’s quite simply timeless.
‘Live This Way’ kicks off with drums and a snarling riff and just gets better, building and building until the solo that makes it more than special just about threatens to set your sound system on fire. That’s followed by the almost Tom Petty meets Aerosmith strains of ‘In Love With the Pain’ that adds yet another texture to this record.
When I read the title ‘The Chain’ I of course couldn’t help think of the Fleetwood Mac classic, but we’re in a different country here. A big rolling groove drives it forward with a vocal that talks about our interconnectedness and sports a chorus that’s smooth as silk and a solo that sounds as a shrill counterpoint to the thrust of what is another remarkable song.
By the time the ‘second half’ of the record starts with ‘Ride’ you are already contemplating ‘album of the year’ accolades. It’s a song with another impossibly smooth chorus atop a driving almost Metallic riff. It’s at this point you start to wonder about how effortlessly the guys are combining sounds and influences from decades apart!
The deeper you delve arguably the more impressive things get: second ballad ‘If My Heart Had Wings’ is surely right up there with their very best slower numbers, and just to rub it in it gets better with each listen. Modern day Aerosmith would kill for this one. It also has my favourite solo on the album. Take a bow Ben, you are simply on fire on this album!
While I was fooled by ‘The Chain’ I’m not by ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ – it is indeed a perfect cover of the ELO classic, a band rarely covered, and even less often covered well. This one nails it and is also perfectly respectful in doing so.
After that bit of fun ‘Some Stories’ gets all cryptic, then thrusting, then melodic, it’s a song with a great groove and lyrics that explore conspiracy theories and warns against believing everything you read, before ‘Devil in Your Eyes’ gets the needle back in that trademark groove. You know immediately that it’s going to be a killer track live!
That just leaves ‘Keep on Keepin’ On’ to bring it all home and deliver the anthem of the pandemic with the wonderful refrain that starts “When everything that’s good is gone, got to keep on keepin’ on” it’s one of the real highlights here and the prefect end to an album that not only looks lyrically at what we’re all going through at the moment but also at what we all individually go through day by day.
After the thirteen tracks here you cannot fail to be moved. Black Stone Cherry never fail me and this one is another record they should be rightly proud of. It’s also a record that reminds me of why music is so important to helping us get through these crazy times. Sadly it’s also a reminder of that thing I most love that is gone – live music.
9/10
TRACKLIST
Ringin’ In My Head
Again
Push Down & Turn
When Angels Learn To Fly
Live This Way
In Love With The Pain
The Chain
Ride
If My Heart Had Wings
Don’t Bring Me Down
Some Stories”
The Devil In Your Eyes
Keep On Keepin’ On
