Black Lips – ‘Underneath The Rainbow’

The Atlanta band's seventh is a beautifully unhinged affair

In the 15-plus years Black Lips have been together, the Atlanta four-piece have encountered their fair share of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. They were chased out of India by police in 2009 for getting naked and making out onstage, and toured their rambunctious songs sound the Middle East in 2012 – introducing live rock’n’roll to audiences who’d never seen anything like it before. They’ve crammed the essence of those experiences into this seventh album, its 12 songs capturing their reckless, politically apolitical, disposition. Beginning with the psychedelic country jangle of ‘Drive-By Buddy’, it’s a beautifully unhinged album, the likes of ‘Smiling’ – with its raw, out-of-tune yet perfect vocals – and ‘Justice After All’ teeming with carefree chaos but never collapsing into all-out shambles. ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Home’ is a sloppy chug of romantic hedonism, while ‘Dog Years’ ends the album on a note of weary but insistent defiance. Black Lips’ spirit is as bright and brilliant as ever.

Mischa Pearlman

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