Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Take Them On, On Your Own

Is this (late) review going to serve any purpose? As I write Take Them On, On Your Own has settled nicely in the top 10 and anyone who really wanted the album will have it nestled in their collections. So who is this going out to? Well, maybe some of you are a bit reluctant. After all, the media hype surrounding BRMC's second album is reaching fever pitch, enough to cause the more suspicious soul to back off at a fair rate of knots.

The bad news then: The hype is justified and I find myself agreeing with sections of the music press that this album is indeed a masterpiece. Anyone with any vague taste in good music needs to own this album, right now.

It doesn't seem two years ago that BRMC trickled onto the radar with Whatever Happened To My Rock and Roll, a pulsating piece of defiance that marked them out as an outfit to watch. Despite some wags claiming BRMC stood for 'Black Rebel Mary Chain', their debut album contained enough of their own touches and sound to separate them from that particular Creation Records outfit.

So do they continue there they left off? OK, so single and album opener Stop does share a sound or two with Columbia by Oasis, but the chugging bassline and sneering vocals ('We don't like you, we just to try you') take it another world totally.

Six Barrel Shotgun is an unsettled little noise fest, with a first line of 'I kill you all with a six barrel shotgun' and a speed frenzy of a beat unrelenting throughout. All throughout Take Them On, On Your Own the air of narcissism that formed on the debut album is taken to a whole new level - especially on the albums centre/masterpiece Generation on which the men in black resign themselves to the fact that 'I don't feel at home in this generation'. Elsewhere, things get a bit political on U.S. Government (which will probably have the Good Ol' Boys worked up) and And I'm Aching sees the effects pedals put to one aside to acoustic shenanigans to prove that Messrs Hayes, Turner and Jago are also bloody good songwriters.

Most people probably know just how good this album is. Those who don't need to be educated now for the band who asked 'Whatever happened to my rock and roll?' have just answered their own question.