The Black Angels - Indigo Meadow

The BAs have been a favorite of mine since seeing them in their hometown of Austin about five years ago. I've liked their albums to varying degrees, but none so much as the one that hit me first, their debut. I would have love to have heard this new one before seeing them live again for my birthday, but it didn't happen. I had an amazing time, but the concert of a psychedelic rock band is way too atmospheric to assume that the best songs are being played. Plus, they released the poppiest single that they've ever waxed for the last Record Store Day. So, I just their new songs here.

It kicks off with the title track. And it would sound as if they've allowed a more professional production take the reigns. It sounds fuller, cleaner than just your normal garage drone. But then the chorus kicks in and Angels jump back to their youthful ways. Which is good. Dynamic.

The first single is also a fun one. "Don't Play With Guns" has got the fuzz of the rest of the catalog, but it's clear that they just tweaked a chorus a little toward the commercial side. Simple, catchy, not muddled in reverb.

And then it gets weird for a spell. The awkwardly mellow "Holland". Another song that does the spell game: "L is for the love in your eye, O is for the sighs..." Holy shit. And the worst song in the Black Angels canon with "The Day", which is a song about the moon telling the sun to go away, because it's nighttime now. It's like the Doors just gave up and recorded a children's nursery rhyme. Alex... you're better than this.

My problem may mostly be with lazy lyric writing. I mean, it's psych-rock so you don't ask for much. But I feel like Alex is kind of rehashing ideas. "Bite the apple, taste the flesh of red and white" ? "My favorite wine, I'll drink you all the time" ? Come on. And other songs that are good are still good in spite of some oversimplification of words. "I Hear Colors" is a heavy hallucination while "Black Isn't Black" is a sexy dark closer. But neither benefit from grand wordsmithing.

I'm still taking five songs with me from this album on my journey through life, which is a lot for my discerning tastes. It would generally earn a five star review. But usually, the highs are higher and the lows not so low. Maybe if your meadow had a more reddish hue. (3 of 5 stars)