Black MountainIn The Future
(01.2007, Jagjaguwar)
Verdict: Can I get a heeeyyyllll yeeahhh?!
If Forest Gospel still gave numerical ratings, I would have slapped a ten on this faster than Shakira can shake her hips. Last year Mr. Thistle dubbed Random Spirit Lover his album that was impossible to not air guitar to. I always thought it impossible that an album could physically force you to air guitar without thinking until In The Future blew my mind and sent my arms flailing in the air on first listen and has not stopped moving them after at least fifteen repeats. Even now as I listen to the album to write the review I am having a hard time keeping my fingers on the keyboard and not on my imaginary guitar strings or drum sticks. Black Mountain put on one of the best live shows I have ever seen last year which had a similar effect on the viewers. No one could hold still as they listened to Black Mountain take classic rock, obliterate it, rearrange it, and finally make it feel like it belongs in the present. Even the most staunch of passive viewers head banged and wiggled as if possessed. In The Future takes the good from previous Black Mountain releases, heavily polishes it and makes it epic. Especially in the eight minute "Tyrants" that has at least four movements, ranging from some of the most mellow stretches of the album to one of the most intense build ups. The album rocks and lulls, making it much more appealing as an album rather than individual tracks. In "Queens Will Play" the vocal and ambient laden build up lasts over four minutes for an ending thirty second jam. This is the kind of album that when I am listening to it a track will come on and I will say "I love this track, this is the best track on the album" and then when the song ends and the new one starts I say "I love this track, this is the best track of the album." I was heavily anticipating In The Future since seeing them last year at Kilby and am now desperately waiting for them to come back to Salt Lake City for an encore rocking performance of In The Future.
-Sassigrass
Black Mountain - "Tyrants"
