Sing in a World That's Falling Apart

In a 1973 interview, exploitation film pioneer Herschell Gordon Lewis decried the rise of the then-novel phenomenon of hardcore porn movies, saying, After youve shown all the aberrations, what do you do next? The Black Lips have never ventured into the adult film industry, but a look at their catalog suggests they would commiserate with Lewis. The bands defining blend of garage punk sleaze and pseudo-psychedelic murk reached its peak on 2005s Let It Bloom and 2007s Good Bad Not Evil, and though theyve made some good albums since then, their efforts to refine their obsessions into something fresher and more accessible on 2011s Arabia Mountain and 2014s Underneath the Rainbow have been somehow underwhelming. Having traversed their land of sonic decadence and wandered back again, the Black Lips take a detour into fractured country music on their ninth studio album, 2020s Sing in a World Thats Falling Apart. Anyone who fears the Black Lips are aiming to join Dan + Shay, Blake Shelton, or Jason Aldean on the C&W charts can relax; despite the abundant twang in these songs and the frequent appearance of steel guitar, this is just as messed up as you would expect from the Black Lips -- a seriously bent collection of country tropes broke to bits, reassembled, and filtered through a haze of cheap liquor and lord knows what else. As a change of pace and/or a new musical direction, Sing in a World Thats Falling Apart is hit and miss. The band sound unexpectedly comfortable with the lope of classic country, and while the credits are unclear about who played the steel licks on these tracks, whoever did them knows what to do. When they want to, the Black Lips can write a decent country melody, like Chainsaw and Georgia, and they build up a good head of steam on the rollicking Angola Rodeo and Dishonest Men. They tackle the ultra-rare Velvet Underground number Get It on Time, and Hooker Jon is strongly recommended to fans of Peter Grudzien. But a bit too much of Sing in a World Thats Falling Apart plays like the joke its clearly meant to be, and by the end of the shambling Live Fast Live Slow, they seem to have lost interest in it. While its commendable that the Black Lips are trying to find new things to do after 20 years of balancing order and chaos, Sing in a World Thats Falling Apart isnt the exciting new aberration they need. ~ Mark Deming