Remember when this ego-fueled vessel, driven by vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, were worshipped as a band? Shooting to fame at the drop of their debut album, Wolfmother have been on a steady climb of popularity ever since – practically bleeding singles along the way.
Now playing surreptitious, low maintenance gigs with almost little to no hype surrounding them, and releasing this album on bandcamp at the drop of a hat, Andrew and the band have stripped their sound and image back in order to rebuild their musical foundation from the ground up.
Despite the group’s almost crude worship of both Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, their revivalist approach worked due to the charm that littered their past collections. Therein lies New Crown’s problem.
The influence is still very much apparent, but due to the lack of fancy aesthetics, this record could easily blend into the background.
The LP doesn’t technically set a foot wrong in any one aspect. Instead, the album’s 11 tracks are just very run-of-the-mill and don’t really promote much replay value. Tracks like ‘Heavy Weight’ and ‘Tall Ships’ contain some good riffs, but ooze predictability, and while ‘My Tangerine Dream’ holds the record’s second half afloat, this is only really because it remains the more memorable song in a sea otherwise mediocre tunes.
Despite their first album dripping with the infectious Zeppelin and Sabbath-inspired riffs and melodies, it still managed to hold its own. Unfortunately, nine years later, not only does the band sound antiquated, but they also seem to be battling relevance in today’s music scene. It’s time for Wolfmother to find a new shtick.
Listen to ‘Tall Ships’ from New Crown here:
