The Black Crowes Album: “By Your Side [Australia Bonus CD]”

I'm not a long time diehard crowes fan. So I'll save you the overly analytical, tooth comb review. Basically if they had more CD's as consistant and well crafted as this one I would be that long time, diehard fan. Over the years they always had some great songs but I never found a disc that I liked the whole enough to buy. This is the best American rock album I've heard in so long I almost forgot there was real rock n roll bands left anymore. Chris Robinson's melodies are very focused and musical and the guitars and rhythm section are all meat. I read some of the reviews saying they missed the more loose, jammy feel from previous CD's. I personally don't think the Crowes do that too well (leave that to the Allman's and Carlos). I love that this CD is one strong "song" after another and they all are to the point without any unecessary fluf. The backup vocals in the gospel, R&B style give great counterpoint melodies to Chris's lead vocal. Maybe all that matters is like the title of my review says. It hasn't left my CD changer since I first put it in. When "Horsehead" starts your yugo turns into a GTO!! It melts blaring, stoplight hiphop at 20 yards baby! If your sick of buying remastered 70's favorites because there ain't much happening in rock right now, check out this CD and it will renew your faith that there's life after Bonham, Jones and Bolin ceased to be.

P.S I refuse to accept that Appetite for Destruction was meant to be my generations rock revival.

i would buy this aalbum, but first i'd like to know what the extra tracks are. post the tracks and then i'll buy the cd.

For starters, The Crowes are an amazing rock n' roll band. Their music is more than welcome considering the severe absence of good rock n' roll these days. As far as By Your Side goes, most people's biggest criticism is that it is too polished. My response to this is that it is important to understand that once a band has been together for as long as these guys have, they naturally get tighter. I don't think this should be mistaken for over-production or anything. And, personally I would not prefer a recording to be sloppy simply so I can say without a doubt that I haven't bought some nice, neat, corporate package. I'd rather trust the musicians. The songcraft on this album is great. The melodies are strong and are not a mere regurgitation of anything else. The guitars are superb and well-driven. Additionally, there are alot of classic Crowe-isms, keeping an identifiable element of consistency with their other records. Also, you can listen to this album the whole way through; every song is awesome. This album rocks, pure and simple, and is a must have.

If it were any other band, I'd probably rate this higher, but my boys just took a bad turn. I don't know what Chris was thinking when he wrote these lyrics. How he went from the poetic "Girl From a Pawnshop" off of Three Snakes to "Heavy" and "Kickin' My Heart Around" is beyond me. He used to write the best words. Also, the album has too much noise; if they've completely changed their style, I don't like it. Hopefully, they were just trying to get their name known again, and they'll go back to their good stuff from now on.

Being a native of Atlanta, and being a sucker for good hooks, wailing vocals, and attitude-laced rock-and-roll, I hustled out to my local entertainment superstore to purchase the new Black Crowes album. On the way back home, I pumped it through my stereo, and imagined how little this record would change if Mick Jagger had sung vocals. Yes, I like Chris Robinson's voice a lot, but the whole record is so....so....STONES. Ever since I bought the record, I haven't been able to shake the scenario: record company execs saunter up to the Crowes and tell them, "hey, all they ever play on the radio is "Hard to Handle" and "Twice as Hard". Why don't you boys do more of that?" Well, they did. This record parallels "Shake Your Money Maker" closely. It's more of the bar room, pool table, late-night kind of rock and roll that they made originally on SYMM. And I don't particularly care for it. My favorite Crowes albums are "Amorica" for its rawness, its soul, and its damn-the-torpedoes attitude, and "Southern Harmony" for they way it paints a picture in my mind of sickness, diesase, and moral depravity. They were taking CHANCES back then, and I for one enjoyed it. "Gone" and "High Head Blues" are two of my favorite Crowes moments. On these two records, it didn't seem as though they were purposefully trying to shake the whole "Stones" moniker, but the music on these two albums showed a band ready to move on for its own sake -- whatever the critics called them. Oh, and I rather liked Three Snakes and One Charm. So there. Anyway, By Your Side seems to be an idea conceived by record execs to turn the Crowes back into the new Stones. Like somebody somewhere knew that this record would be a sure-fire way to bring the Crowes back to the national spotlight and away from those banal "Where Are They Now?" specials on VH1. Well, it's gonna work, but as "Amorica" suggests, I'm not entirely sure that the Crowes WANT to be the Stones. Okay, yada yada yada. I've said my piece. Oh yeah -- the record still rocks.