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...
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