The Black Crowes

By Your Side

A Highly Underrated Album

Review Score:

(8/10)
Initially, I wasn't floored by By Your Side. The Black Crowes' catalog (despite what critics might tell you) up to this album had been a steady growing process, culminating in the masterpiece album Three Snakes and One Charm. And when I popped this new disc into the player after nearly three years of anticipation, I immediately saw it as a step backward. It seemed to be a recall to the band's early days, what some mistakenly mislabel as their heyday. But, I soon realized that the step backward wasn't necessarily a bad thing. True, I would have liked to have seen the band carry on with the jangly, jam-heavy material on Three Snakes, but there is no denying that By Your Side has some damn fine songs on it. The standouts are the album's first single, "Kickin' My Heart Around", and its rousing closer, "Virtue and Vice." These two songs are instant classics and I defy anyone to not shake their money maker when they are played. In fact, every song on this album is a winner. And that alone makes it worth picking up. How many other bands can assemble eleven smokin' tracks in one shot? Not many. I guess the thing to do with By Your Side, as with any Black Crowes release, is to listen to it based on its own merits and not shadow it with comparisons to its predecessors.

Also worth noting is the sizeable number of b-sides released with this album's singles. All of them are amazing songs and it's a puzzle as to why they weren't included on the album. Definitely worth seeking out, if you can still find them.<

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