Album Review: The Black Crowes, Happiness Bastards

Crikey, 15 long years have flown by since The Black Crowes last released original music, and it’s now 40 years since the band’s inception. How did that happen? Well, according to their press release, it all happened in a flash of sex, drugs, fights and break-ups. Whatever they’ve been up to, it’s good to have them back.

Named after a novel by San Franciscan beat poet Kirby Doyle, Happiness Bastards chugs along with a quintessential Crowes burr. By the time you get to ‘Cross Your Fingers’ and ‘Wanting And Waiting – the Robinson brothers, Chris and Rich, are dug deep in a rock and roll groove worthy of their beloved Jagger/Richards.

But the Crowes also stretch further, for this is a band equally influenced by fellow Georgians REM and ’60s psych-pop as by classic Southern rock. Indeed, there are splashes of East LA punks X on ‘Flesh Wound’, while closer ‘Kindred Friend’ is a ballad worthy of the canon of The Allman Brothers Band.

Elsewhere, Grammy winner Lainey Wilson provides a star turn on ‘Wilted Rose, while ‘Bleed It Dry’ throws down a shedload of ’70s blues-rock.

8/10