Black Lips
Sing in a World That's Falling Apart
Release Date: Jan 24, 2020
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Fire Records
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Album Review: Sing in a World That's Falling Apart by Black Lips
Very Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
The shape-shifting band are known for their raucous lo-fi garage punk that has inspired a myriad of contemporary indie bands, and their eccentric, unpredictable live-shows that descend into near-hysteria. And now, on their ninth record, the Black Lips have taken a left turn into country-punk, Sing In a World That's Falling Apart seeing the band dive headfirst into the world of glorious, off-kilter honky-tonk. It's a wonderful new chapter in the Black Lips discography and, rather surprisingly, a breath of fresh air.
Based on rating 7/10
In a 1973 interview, exploitation film pioneer Herschell Gordon Lewis decried the rise of the then-novel phenomenon of hardcore porn movies, saying, "After you've shown all the aberrations, what do you do next?" The Black Lips have never ventured into the adult film industry, but a look at their catalog suggests they would commiserate with Lewis. The band's defining blend of garage punk sleaze and pseudo-psychedelic murk reached its peak on 2005's Let It Bloom and 2007's Good Bad Not Evil, and though they've made some good albums since then, their efforts to refine their sound and obsessions into fresher territory on 2011's Arabia Mountain and 2014's Underneath the Rainbow haven't been entirely successful. In search of new fields to conquer, the Black Lips take a detour into fractured country music on their ninth studio album, 2020's Sing in a World That's Falling Apart.
Based on rating 6/10
Black Lips' latest record, Sing in a World That's Falling Apart, is an interesting turn into more alternative country sounds, but it is unlikely to attract many people outside of their current fan base. The record is a solid effort at a punk-country sound, recalling figures like the Reverend Horton Heat in its faster moments. The first track, "Hooker Jon," makes it seem like this will be a tongue-in-cheek take on country tropes, but it is ultimately played relatively straight. The issue is that Sing In A World That's Falling Apart doesn ….
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