RECORD RACK

"Baby 81" (RCA)

BRMC revs up musical growth

ON its 2000 debut, flush with next-big-thing glow, drone-rock trio BRMC stepped forward in one song to ask the slightly petulant question, "Whatever happened to my rock 'n' roll?"

ADVERTISEMENT

Seven years later, the band ponders a related matter — "Suicide's easy, what happened to the revolution?" sings Robert Turner in the song "Berlin" — but with broader scope and clear maturity, two characteristics of the new album as a whole.

Though hardly eschewing inward orientation, BRMC balances personal and political, in "Weapon of Choice" asserting, "I won't waste my love on a nation." And throughout this album, the group applies the structural and emotional epiphanies of 2005's semi-acoustic, blues-inspired "Howl" to reinvigorate the largely electric approach of its earlier work.

The most impressive growth is musical. There is still a lot of fuzzy bass, repetitive riffing and four-square rhythm owing allegiance to Love & Rockets and Spaceman 3. But now these elements support unexpectedly melodic choruses and bridges, with some songs moving off in entirely new (for this band) directions:

The Lennon-esque ambience of "Window" (with even some mumbled "I Am the Walrus"-like chanting at the end), the "Joshua Tree"-ish space/church hybrid of "All You Do Is Talk," the '60s/'80s pop-bop of "It's Not What You Wanted," the Bonham-like beat of "666 Conducer." The peak comes with "American X," an exhilarating, nine-minute dark-jam epic, setting up the ruminative closer, "Am I Only."

Revolutionary? Not really. But another strong turn.

— Steve Hochman

---

Albums are reviewed on a scale of four stars (excellent), three stars (good), two stars (fair) and one star (poor). Albums reviewed will be released Tuesday.