Awesome Color
Electric Aborigines

Have you ever been blown away by the first track of an album heard in passing? The opening track is always an important piece; it can be bypassed as an intro (common in some progressive or concept albums), be a punch in the face (the ferocious screams of Jon Spencer in "Skunk" that brilliantly opened "Now I Got Worry"), or otherwise anticipate the mood of the album ("Thumb" that opened Kyuss's "Blues For The Red Sun"?). If the first track of a new release is terrible, in this world driven by download frenzy, it often means consigning the album to the dark corners of your HD.

That won't happen when you come across "Eyes Of Light" which opens the second album by Detroit's Awesome Color (Ann Harbour to be precise, does that ring a bell?). It's becoming increasingly rare for me to feel so completely satisfied with a track, to shout miracle from the window, to have mystical visions depicting Rob Tyner and Iggy running naked on the waters of Lake Michigan. Simply the most engaging sonic onslaught in the MC5/Stooges axis heard lately (I'm self-regulating; I could easily say "of all time" in the wave of excitement). Stuff that sends entire shelves of so-called "rock" music home. Balls out, an aboriginal drummer, a primordial and instinctive knowledge of the instruments, but above all an innate ability to focus on the target and express goals, which only the very young possess. I could and you could stop here, but the guys have improved since their first album/involuntary tribute to Detroit rock released last year.

"Step Up" awakens the New York chicks and brings them back to their former glory, "Outside Tonight" flirts lasciviously with the blackness of the early Funkadelic, "Burning" honors the father, Raw Power, while "Come And Dance" sanctifies the mother India as seen through the eyes of a 60's stoner. There's even room for a dirty, staggering blues like "Evil Rose", a fitting end to an album not quite up to the stunning opening track, but a good way to rekindle the extinguished fire of r'n'r in today's (and lackluster) musical landscape.

Balls out please!