The Black Crowes

By Your Side

Great return to form

Review Score:

(10/10)
I absolutely loved this album when it came out. To me it was the most exciting thing we had heard from this great band in over 6 years. After the first two albums, I found "Amorica" too experimental and "Three Snakes And a Charm" a slight improvement but a bit slow in spots. This effort just gets back to basics--both for the Crowes in particular and rock and roll in general.

Sure, there are none of the understated drawn-out, experimental sounds that the music critics who hate melodic rock music like. And that's what's so great about it. I wouldn't want each of their albums to sound just like this, but at the time (a time when grunge was mercifully beginning to die but when boy bands were truly taking over the popular music universe) this release hit the spot. For sure, it still does.

"Kickin' My Heart Around" was the first single released--and I was instantly pumped when I first heard it. A catchy, rocking song with attitude. The title track and "Only A Fool" were other tracks that I heard on the radio--both very endearing anthems with great background vocals. Other standout tracks include the opener "Go Faster", the closer "Virtue and Vice", and "Heavy". Just an amazingly catchy overall effort that is so refreshing to hear in this day and age. I like the Crowes' latest album "Lions" almost as much, as it continues the interesting evolutionary process of this band's music. But for sure, no rock album hit the spot more than this one at the time it came out.

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