Beat The Devil's Tattoo

Just when you think you can predict Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s next move, they change the game again. Their third album replaced the band’s trademark garage-psych-meets-Britpop sound for folk-inflected rootsiness, and the follow-up incorporated those Americana moves into the band’s more familiar style, but then 2008’s The Effects of 333 turned out to be BRMC’s abstract/experimental, noise-centric Metal Machine Music. After that palate-cleanser, the boys (and girl, with ex-Raveonettes beatkeeper Leah Shapiro now on board) seem to have decided they enjoy kicking the jams out so much that they’d like to try it with songs this time. With a couple of exceptions toward the back end of the album (Beatlesque piano ballad “Long Way Down,” folky strummer “The Toll”), Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is the band’s fuzziest, dirtiest, bluesiest record to date. With band mentor Michael Been – former frontman for ‘80s rockers The Call and father of BRMC’s Michael Levon Been – once again producing, the band openly acknowledge their roots here, frequently ending up sounding more like key influence Spacemen 3 (especially on the gonzo 10-1/2 minute fuzz-psych freakout “Half State”) than they have at any other point in their decade-long career.