Review: Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg

October 27th, 2009 by Oswald Hobbes / Comment on this post

In 2006, Wolfmother shook up the hard rock landscape with their self-titled debut, a collection of solid psychedelic rock songs notable mostly for their strict adherence to 1970′s metal values and lead-guitarist/singer Andrew Stockdale’s Ozzy-like vocal approach. After facing almost total implosion (two founding members left), Stockdale has regrouped, recruited a few new members, and recorded another platter of nimble stoner-rock.

Cosmic Egg begins about where Wolfmother’s last record left off: a snaky, hazy riff coupled with some driving percussion opens “California Queen,” the only difference being a weirdly Bono-like vocal. As the track reaches critical levels, though, Stockdale slides into more familiar territory, and his nasal whine is still the perfect accompaniment to music that’s best described as Sabbath minus the doom. Cosmic Egg retains the positive vibe throughout as the band throws grungy riffs and Beatlesesque swirls of melody into their retro blender – this dance isn’t new, but Wolfmother remain so well-versed in the steps that it sounds compelling and fresh. Also, they sing about weed and rainbows.

“In The Morning” and “Far Away” are both detours into ballad territory with surprising results. You can wave your lighter shamelessly to “In The Morning” as the group cycles through familiar riffs; the song already sounds like a classic and should become a staple of their live-set. “Far Away,” on the other hand, showcases a whole new attack method: with nothing but a few chords swiped from late-period Beatles, some inventive instrumentation, and a surging chorus, Wolfmother present a new dimension to their music that few could’ve predicted based on past workouts. True to form, both tracks layer the guitar on thick, but the fretwork is gently assured rather than ham-handed and each offers a nice break from the standard four-to-the-floor cock rock otherwise dominating the proceedings.

And oh, what cock rock it is! “Pilgrim” and “New Moon Rising” are the obvious bangers, but pleasures abound everywhere and the run-time (at about fifty-five minutes for the standard version; the album is being released in approximately five hundred different permutations, though, so actual experience will vary depending on your particular point of purchase) is extremely generous. If you spent serious time with their previous release, it should come as no surprise that Cosmic Egg is a grower – back-to-back, a lack of variety may seem apparent. But, once isolated, each song reveals surprising layers. “In The Castle,” for example, is a late-album stunner that flits from a soft, atmospheric opening to melodically corrosive guitar squalling to a truly balls-out chorus, but it didn’t start to truly stick out until my fifth listen.

Cosmic Egg is a fairly standard sophomore record, despite the line-up change: it still sounds like Wolfmother, but more so. There’s enough stylistic deviation here to keep the formula fresh, and there’s enough pure muscle to drive even the most similar-sounding tracks home. It’s a solid effort, and one that I already look forward to revisiting well into the future.