Wolfmother - s/t

Wolfmother
s/t
Modular Recordings/Interscope
Grade: A-

With each passing day, Australia’s Wolfmother gets bigger and bigger, and into becoming one of the coolest heavy psych-rock jam bands ever. The three-piece of Andrew Stockdale (guitars/vocals), Chris Ross (bass/keyboards), and Myles Heskett (drums) first got Americans attention with their teaser EP Dimensions. Now, and shortly after the EP’s release, comes this twelve-song juggernaut of acid-drenched 70s metal. Starting with “Dimension,” the sprawling, screaming, thumping rock number that found its way onto Dane Cook’s Tourgasm as the theme song, this self-titled release makes it easy to call Wolfmother the most excited non-American rock band right now. If you bought the EP, you’ll be happy to know that besides from “Dimension,” the only other song off the EP here is the slow, drugged out “Mind’s Eye.” While you wish that everything song would sound like “Dimension,” Wolfmother move between sounds which produces both positive and negative consequences; the former being memorable differences, the latter being deviation from magic. “White Unicorn” follows “Dimension” here and, as the title may tell you, is a riff-heavy balls-out rocker. Other songs to bring up such glorious comparisons include “Colossal,” “Witchcraft,” as well as the bluesy “Joker & the Thief.” You also get stripped-down punk rock on “Apple Tree,” the wild riffer “Woman,” and another slow-burner “Where Eagles Have Been.” Did you notice that some of the best songs have the most majestic names; and that campy 70s rock is where Wolfmother treads slightly, but just slightly. If there was ever a contemporary band you would want to trip out to and walk around the desert, it is Wolfmother!