The Black Lips return with their 10th studio album ‘Apocalypse Love’, scorched with their trademark menace, it cryogenically mutates all recognised musical bases; it spins yarns about vintage Soviet synths, Benzedrine stupors, coup de’ tats, stolen valor and certified destruction, all set against a black setting sun. Since the turn of the decade the band have transformed from austere country pioneers, into a set of Lynchian surrealists, hellbent on recalibrating the history of rock ‘n’ roll.
Singer and saxophonist Zumi Rosow muses, “It’s a weird dance record, one that reflects the moment that the world’s in right now…”
‘Apocalypse Love’ is an album that emanates from a dive bar jukebox in the back of your mind; with a playlist that bends between tub thumping doom-glam, Plastic Ono singalongs, cocktail-shaken space age pop, Morricone reverberations and lo-fi outsider acoustic-punk, with mariachi horns, theremins, drum machines and harmonies filtering through the infectious melodies.
Sellotaped together with lavish arrangements and plenty of wayward noises to expand the Lips’ new panorama, ‘Apocalypse Love’ is a smorgasbord; a soundtrack for these troubled times, a buzzing light through the haze of uncertainty, at the end of that long corridor in the Lips’ favoured smoke-filled nightery.
As the band venture into their third decade, ‘Apocalypse Love’ is proof that The Black Lips show no sign of slowing down…
New album available on LTD Deluxe Edition Violet Vinyl with Silver Foiled Sleeve, Rough Trade Exclusive White/Black ‘Apocalypse Splatter’ Vinyl, Classic Black Vinyl & CD.
