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Rating: We all kind of considered the Black Lips over the hill. I myself thought they had already embarked on a long artistic sunset, which they would continue to travel down, indifferent to their musical anachronism.
And yet, despite the departure of two founding members, the remaining Lips brought on board an unlikely drummer, an organist, and a saxophonist, and pulled out of the magic hat not only a very valid record, but also one of their best. Choral, varied, faithful to their lo-fi and slacker vision of 60's garage, and enriched with solutions never so different and well-blended over the course of the 56 minutes of the album.
An alien object to the garage genre, this "Satan's Graffiti..", either due to the aforementioned length, or because it is internally separated by three interludes (as if they were Yes, are you crazy?), or because of the use of mariachi, country, and psychedelic atmospheres. In this, the addition of steady saxophone and trumpet, already appeared in "Arabia Mountain," has benefited the charm of many tracks, like the single "Can't Hold On", a choral Mexican garage with fantastic groove.
Obviously, if you look back, the wild frenzy of an album like "Let It Bloom" is no longer present in form, but remains in substance. In the off-kilter country of "Rebel Intuition", in the western of "Occidental Front", in the distorted Farfisa of "We Know", in the post-hangover depression of "Come Ride With Me", or in the Addams Family psychedelia of "In My Mind There's A Dream". Always present are the drunken and silly ballads, here answering to the names of "Wayne" and "Losers Lament".
Peak of the album and song of the summer "Squatting In Heaven", garage riff doubled by the sax, stadium choir, pause, and restart as per the perfect garage song manual. Already among the albums of the year (and of the heart)
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