The Black Crowes

By Your Side (Columbia)
by Martin Popoff

Well, can’t say I haven’t asked for it before, a knock-it-about rock record from these boys that would catch us croakin’ and crowin’ stadium anthems like skinny days of yore. But durn it if I wasn’t getting comfortable with a new type of godlike sweet justice the boys were exuding as of late, this heavenly drip into the soup of the new Dead (no one band could possibly attain, so we have Phish, Blues Traveller, Dave Matthews, and the Allmans). But that’s now gone, and what we have is a true back-to-the-roots record that, dare I say, marks a dumbing down, The Black Crowes (switched bassist, and only one guitarist: Chris) regressing into the space between Shake Your Money Maker and The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion. So it’s a complete sell-out-back, still a very good collection of songs by a unique l’il chemistry set, but I can’t help feeling the fix is on.

Faves are now the tracks that wig out a bit, “Welcome To The Goodtimes,” “Diamond Ring,” and “Virtue And Vice,” all replete with eccentric Acid Test layers missing from Stoned Kiss songs like “Go Faster” and “Kicking My Heart Around.” And those r+b choruses in “Go Tell The Congregation” and “Only A Fool,” just go way too far into mainstream Grammy madness. I can see Oprah having the boys on and doing that loitered nerd-like dance singalong thing she does with Aretha and Patti LaBelle. But y’know, this is still the Crowes, and like Aerosmith (connection: Nine Lives twiddler Kevin Shirley produces, safe as milk I might add), these guys care too much to really turn in an objective, unarguable pooch. This was more about direction than loss of muse.
(www.blackcrowes.com)