Week 24 of an album a week for a year
Black Cab - Altamont Diary
Fuck me, another week has flown by. This week I went with a suggestion from my mate Alan, the notorious guitarist from the free wheeling punk band DRONEHELL. Alan suggested Altamont Diary by Black Cab.
I quite liked this album, and the best way to sum it up is 'eclectic'. There's a really laid back feel to a lot of this album, but the sound changes a lot between songs. They are described as alternative electronic indie shoegazerish, and that's pretty damn accurate. They are a Melbourne band, but there's vocals or samples that have an American accent so... I don't know, maybe one of them has an accent, maybe there was a guest on this album, I don't know.
Going from the top, we have Summer of Love. It starts off with birds chirping and a bit of a soundscape, and grows into a 60's psychedelic revivalist song. There's a garage feel to it and it rolls along nicely. Lyrically it's not exactly complex (repeating it's the summer of love over and over) but it's a got a nice vibe to it.
Next is it's OK. I quite liked this one. Again, simple lyrics (it's OK things are not OK) but there's a bit of an indie feel to it and a driving beat. The vocals sit back in the mix and are delivered in an almost lazy way, but I quite liked this song. It reminded me a little bit of The Murder Capital but a lot gentler.
Angels Arrive just sounds cool. It's reminiscent of The Brian Jonestown Massacre's song Anemone or another song of theirs Who, but crossed with Moby. I love this song. The tone of the guitar, the delivery of the vocals, it's just a fucking great song. It's laid back but raw. There's hints of smoothness in it, but it's still got a really ugly, driving bass and guitar in there.
Jerry Sez is a trippy little soundscape. There's some vocal samples hidden amongst a dreamy background of half heard sounds and scattered sounds. It's not intrusive though, it's this nice little lullaby moment that adds to the trip.
Good Drugs comes in gently, with an ominous undertone. It takes about 2 minutes to really get going, and much like a drug it comes in waves leading up to that moment. It's part of the experience though, as the song isn't quite 5 minutes long. But when it kicks, it fucking kicks! Fantastic drum sound on this one. I don't think I've had an album this year with a really obvious sitar on it, so I really enjoyed hearing one shred in this song.
Hey People is another instrumental song that's similar to Jerry Sez, it creates a dreamlike feel to the album. There's what sounds like a slide guitar, drums, and snatches of vocal samples throughout it, and it creates this real... vibe. It sounds skippable when I try and use words to describe it, but it's actually a bit of a highlight when it comes on.
New Speedway Boogie is my least favourite song on the album (it's a Grateful Dead cover by the way). The rest of the album has a tone I love. This song though? Well I've endured it 20 times now, and I don't hate it, it's kind of catchy, but it isn't on the same level as the rest of the album. I don't think it's just the 'boogie' feel of the first half of this song, it just hasn't got the same tone to it as the rest of the album. The back end of this song is a bit better, when there's more depth to the bass and the kick drum, a bit more electronic to the feel of it, but I think the album would be stronger without this song.
A Killing is another instrumental track, but more of an electronic one. It's upbeat and catchy, with filters and interesting sounds coming in and out. Again, you can hear the edge of vocal samples, but can't really understand what anyone is saying.
1970. Right from the first guitar note, this song had me. The rhythm and vocal delivery is laid back but the guitar brings an ugly tone that I just love. It's a 10 minute song and it goes to some interesting places. There's moments of space and half heard vocal samples drifting in the ether, but it never feels like it's too long. There's structure in the sparseness, and it kicks back into a more traditional rock sound at the end.
... is a final little trippy soundscape cause why the fuck not.
So there it is. Black Cab's Altamont Diary. I really enjoyed it and give it 4 and a half fingers out of 5. Had New Speedway Boogie been left off, I'd probably give it a full 5 but that song... I didn't hate it, but it subtracted from the sound for me.
I can see myself coming back to this album again in future, but I think I'd like to check out some more of their albums too (there's 23 released so far so it might take a while to get through them all!).
The year so far