REVIEW: Anders Osborne’s Black Eye Galaxy

In case you haven’t heard, Anders Osborne’s latest release, Black Eye Galaxy, hit the shelves in May, but Osborne has never stopped touring.  I was fortunate to see his hour-long set at Mt. Jam in New York this year.  I would expect any artist playing for 15,000 music lovers to bring their A game, and Osborne did not disappoint.  In a word, it rocked.  Hard.  But as is often the case, the live performance brought a level of energy and excitement that is difficult for a studio album to convey. 

Black Eye Galaxy starts out strong with “Send Me a Friend,” heavy on the guitar and full of distortion.  (It seems like we’ve all been listening to a lot of Black Keys lately…)  In that vein, most tracks on the first half of the album bring edgy lyrics, muddy vocals, and dirty guitar riffs.  It’s straight-up rock-n-roll.

Osborne has countered these tracks with an almost Neil Young feel to the rest of the album.  “Louisiana Gold” and “Tracking My Roots” add a folksy element to the collection that is an interesting contrast to the edgy guitar and rough vocals that grace the first half of the album.  

The highlight of the album is the title track which features a nice, long, spacey jam.  I forgot where I was for a minute… but I was eased back into it with the perfect mellow guitar solo. 

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this album in chunks. I'm not sure I'd listen straight through again, but I will definitely listen to individual tracks. Over and over... 

Track 7, Man in Motion

“This is sleepy music, mama…” I hear from my four-year-old in the back seat.

“You’re right, baby.  I’m too tired to listen to this right now…” 

As I reach for my purse, a swell of strings delicately flows from the speakers of the family van.  The van that would soon be carrying us eastward toward The Mountain.  As this thought crosses my mind, I am overcome with excitement.  My favorite band, my favorite place… in eager anticipation I find the new disc – the download because my husband and I could not wait for our pre-ordered CD to come in the mail… I pull out the plain silver disc, donned only by my own handwriting and shove it in the slot on my dash.  My hands carry my finger to the advance button; I push the tracks forward to number seven….

Immediately, my son says, “Ok.  This is rock-n-roll, mama.  This is a rock-n-roll song.”  Ten seconds later, “Is this Warren Haynes?” 

Yeah, that’s my boy.