Flower (punk) Power

Black Lips
Arabia Mountain
Vice Records

(Editor's note: The sad fact of the matter is that I have a very demanding job which leaves me very little, if any, time to write blogs. I restarted The Midpoint with the hopes that simply having dominion over a small slice of the web would guilt me into regular posting. Several months later I see that isn't the case, sadly. I will do what I can, starting with my favorite thing to write about, new(ish) music! I don't care that it's almost March of 2012, I'm going to write about my favorite albums of 2011 in alphabetical order by band name.)

Forgive me for paraphrasing, but I read an interview once with Greg Cartwright during which he was asked about what it was that made Crystal Gazing Luck Amazing, that wonderful swansong from the Compulsive Gamblers, sound so good. Greg's answer was something along the lines that "we didn't fuck with it too much." Producer Jim Diamond let the band make the sound they wanted, and the whole affair was wrapped up quickly. The light touch produced a finished product which allowed the emotion to shine through the muddiness of its low end with fascinating and powerful results.

I've always felt Atlanta's Black Lips prospered from a similar approach on their albums. In fact, I liked the boozy sound they produced. It was the sound of a band having fun but getting their point across. 2005's Let It Bloom, for example, was produced in King Khan's home studio in Germany, and sounded fantastic.

My first reaction to the news of Arabia Mountain's prodcution by Amy Winehouse collaborator Mark Ronson was one of a bit of confusion. I always felt his work on Back to Black was brilliant, the two of them made a fantastic team. However, the precision beats and Dap King horns seemed like they might sound out of place on a Black Lips record. Additionally, I worried the party sound of the Lips could be lost in Ronson's approach.

I am very happy to say my intuition was completely wrong. In fact, the two have combined to produce a fantastic album which has erased the bad memories of 2009's 200 Million Thousand.

I had a great conversation with my local record store owner the other day about music criticism. We were discussing the early reviews for Mark Sultan's Whatever/Whenever and were struck by much of the negative criticism regarding that album. I'm always a bit surprised when bands get bad ink for not evolving their sound. I don't need evolution from everyone. I'll be perfectly happy for say, Nobunny, to continue to release the same sound album after album. Same thing with the Black Lips. However, Arabia Mountain has shown an evolution in their sound. What's great about it is its subtly. There are a few new sounds here, but it's definitely still a Black Lips album. And a Mark Ronson production.

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