For fans of rootsy, psychedelic rock, Blues Pills have long been a fascinating proposition, their self-titled 2014 debut setting out their stall as holders of the patchouli-scented cosmic rock flame – with powerhouse vocalist Elin Larsson an amalgam of singers from Janis Joplin and Maggie Bell to Shocking Blue’s Mariska Veres.
However, despite a promising follow-up in 2016’s Lady In Gold, they’ve since seemed to lose the laser focus, and the departure of guitarist Dorian Sorriaux in 2018 was the precursor to 2020’s disappointing Holy Moly!. Recorded in a few weeks in Varberg, deep in the Swedish countryside, and produced by Grammy-nominated Freddy Alexander, their fourth studio album finds them recapturing at least some of that earlier purpose.
Larsson discovered she was pregnant during recording, and a carpe diem urgency rips through the barnstorming opening title track, the singer announcing: ‘I’m gonna ruin someone’s birthday!’ before declaring: ‘I just don’t give a damn no more, I got a new disease inside my bones!’ over the kind of molten riffing that made The Soundtrack Of Our Lives such a festival draw back in the early 00s.
While Motown-style stomp Bad Choices and mega-ballad Top Of The Sky have the feel of table-pleasing stabs at commercial success, there’s genuine emotion in the malevolent Holding Me Back, Larsson declaring: ‘You’re always holding me back, how fucking drives me mad’. Like A Drug is a pulverising examination of emotional addiction, while I Don’t Wanna Get Back On That Horse Again hints at disillusionment with the whole pop process, Larsson asking: ‘Do I have to get out of bed today?’
This simmering tension ensures that Birthday comes with a few genuinely jaw-dropping moments. Shadows is swamp blues of such white-knuckle intensity that you can imagine festival audiences quaking in its presence, while Somebody Better builds from a shimmering, bluesy intro into a stadium-sized anthem of eye-bulging intensity, Larsson’s bluesy exclamations a wonder to behold as she hollers: ‘You fuck with my brain, making me go insane!’
Blues Pills might not be to everyone’s taste, but at their best there’s still plenty to celebrate.
