CLUTCH — From Beale Street to Oblivion (review)

CLUTCH — From Beale Street to Oblivion album cover Album · 2007 · Stoner Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"From Beale Street to Oblivion" is the 8th full-length studio album by US hard rock act Clutch. The album was released through DRT Entertainment in March 2007.

The music on the album continues the warm bluesy hard rock of "Robot Hive/Exodus (2005)". "From Beale Street to Oblivion" is the second album to feature Mick Schauer on Hammond Organ, Hohner Clavinet, and Wurlitzer Electric Piano, and his contributions to the overall sound are welcome and pleasant sounding. However the basis in the music is still hard rocking bluesy guitar riffs, a great playing rhythm section, and the strong deep end vocals by Neil Fallon. The lyrics are as always subtly humourous which is also emphasized by songtitles like "When Vegans Attack" and "Mr. Shiny Cadillackness". Clutch both know how to rock out like they do on the two opening tracks "You Can't Stop Progress" and "Power Player", but they also play slower and more mellow at times and even crossover to more regular blues territory on a couple of tracks. Tracks like "Electric Worry" and "Mr. Shiny Cadillackness" which feature harmonica playing by Eric Oblander of Five Horse Johnson represent the latter style.

I generally have lots of praise for "From Beale Street to Oblivion". Excellent musicianship, a warm and organic sound production, and catchy and clever songwriting. However "From Beale Street to Oblivion" do suffer some of the same flaws as quite a few other Clutch albums also do. While the songwriting is of high quality there are still a couple of tracks featured on the album that I consider to be filler material. Especially the latter part of the 12 track, 48:18 minutes long album features a couple of tracks that don´t stand out enough. "From Beale Street to Oblivion" is overall a very enjoyable album though and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.
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