Having three singers to call upon is a rare thing in the music world, well, at least outside boy bands and harmony groups, and it certainly adds an interesting dimension to the Blackfox sound. To some bands, the vocals are just something put on top of the music, and such an attitude means that they miss the point and potential of the voice, the lyrics, and the vocal delivery. Just like any other instrument, when wielded intelligently, it pulls and pushes the creativity in many different directions, if you let it. Blackfox4, the band’s… you guessed it, fourth album is an example of vocals used as a slick, sensational dynamic.
And as such, they deliver a fantastic album, one that takes the rock and roll template and adds layers of poise and polish, gratuitous groove and marvelous melody to the form.
“Beaming” is a big opener, but instead of just opting for volume and velocity, it builds something big and devastatingly powerful on a more measured-paced beat. “Bring Your Fire,” however, proves that they are just as adept at blistering, fast-paced pieces.
But there are plenty of surprises, “Running out of Danger,” for one, a mercurial, swampy, psych-blues piece that explodes into dense and dark choruses and spacious, trippy Doorsian interludes. “ She Died Inside” plays with more power-pop or new wave grooves, like Elvis Costello, only with less of the fractious frisson that always sounded like he was in the process of overdosing on coffee.
And right to the last, they keep the curveballs coming, the album’s swansong, “Sacred,” sounding like a space-rock wigout, as if Hawkwind, instead of being the most famous sons of the Ladbrooke Groove hippy scene of the 70’s, were actually from present day Atlanta.
Blackfox4 covers a lot of ground, yet still sounds like a cohesive collection and is undoubtedly the product of the same band.
Adventurous to the point of eclectic, grounded enough so that we can still join the dots—and undoubtedly a great album.
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