Album Review: Take Them On, On Your Own by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

The answer to the plaintive question posed in this Anglo-American trio's 2001 single Whatever Happened to My Rock'n'Roll? (Punk Rock Song) is: Johnny Rotten moved to Malibu, the 1980s happened and "rock'n'roll" became a niche product, periodically rediscovered by bands convinced that only they possess the right proportion of attitude and haircuts to set the world to rights. Every train-wreck guitar chord of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's second album aches with yearning for the days when the Sex Pistols were signed to EMI and a leather jacket did for every occasion. Their no-surrender stance is admirable, but Black Rebel haven't a hope of leading the people's revolution because they are so self-consciously reverential, with each narcotic outburst owing its existence to the Pistols and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

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