Bluesy, heartfelt and packed full of testosterone, Mechanical Bull is the Followill clan’s move away from churning out tracks for the hit parade to make a record inspired, if not fuelled, by drink, drugs, girls and good times.
Lead single ‘Supersoaker’ takes us straight back to 2004 and sounds like it was made after several JD’s in a Tennessee bar as much as any track from Aha Shake Heartbreak ever did. That desert rock sound, made by Queens of the Stone Age, perfected by Kings of Leon and reinvigorated by Arctic Monkeys, is what the band have been missing for a while now, so it’s a good thing that ‘Rock City’ opens with the line “I was running through the desert / I was looking for drugs / And I was searching for a woman / Who was willing to love / So I could take her like a woman”. Whereas the younger Kings were always grizzly and looking for a fight, however, Mechanical Bull sounds like a band who have just back to enjoying themselves.
The different influences on the album come to the fore with ‘Beautiful War’ which slows down the tempo without going back to the turgid failings of their past two albums. It’s bluesy, poignant and not unlike the kind of album that the four sons of Midwestern pastor might make. The electronic experimentation and pop ballads are all gone, and in their place is the rootsy, country sound which the band have always had at heart.
It’s not all downbeat and soul-searching though. ‘Don’t Matter’ is a guttural, Sabbath-like statement of defiance whilst ‘Temple’ and ‘Coming Back Again’ would sit comfortably on any Springsteen or Ryan Adams album. We’re treated to an old school, beautiful Jared Followill bassline on ‘Family Tree’ and a host of softer tracks which evoke Because of the Times, particularly ‘Arizona’. The key to the album, however, is that it sounds like 13 albums made by a band who love the music they are making again. After the fallouts and fights which have dogged the band since they released Only By The Night, that can only be a good thing.
Our cold cold sailor’s heart has been warmed by the Followills’ return so we’re going to reward them with an 8 Jacks out of 10:
Mechanical Bull was released on September 24th on RCA Records.