Track Listing

1. Stormy High
2. Angels
3. Tyrants
4. Wucan
5. Stay Free
6. Queens Will Play
7. Evil Ways
8. Wild Wind
9. Bright Lights
10. Night Walks

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9310 in Music
• Released on: 2008-01-21
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's a funny old title, for a band that hark so clearly back to the thatch-shaking glory days of ‘70s rock--but for all their aesthetic groundings in the music of the past, it's pleasing to report that on second album In the Future, Vancouver's Black Mountain most certainly sound like a band chasing no-one's dream but their own. Within, you'll find musky, masculine rock with something of the technical proficiency and seismic grooves of Led Zeppelin, grandiose swathes of vintage synthesiser, jaded rock lullabies, and in the shape of "Bright Lights", a 17 minute song in several movements that travels from snaking, raga-like like beginnings to a solo-strewn thrash by way of one lengthy mid-section of funereal organ and a couple of bouts of blazing, horizon-chasing rock boogie. Newcomers tempted in by the presence of "Stay Free", Black Mountain's desolate cactus-soul contribution to the Spiderman III soundtrack, might at first be alarmed by In the Future's instinct for exploring rock's more cosmic reaches. But two songs lead by sultry-voiced bassist Amber Webber, "Queens Will Play" and the closing, valedictory "Night Walks", offer melodic gems amongst the hairy, progressive jams--a reminder that up the Black Mountain, it pays to take the rough with the smooth. --Louis Pattison

CD Description
'In The Future' is the second album from Canadian psych-rockers Black Mountain. A storming, raging album that brings tomind artists such as Can and the Secret Machines, this record is a must for fans of intelligent, forward-thinking rock music. Includes the tracks 'Wucan', 'Stay Free' and 'Queens Will Play'.

Customer Reviews

A Modern Classic
I can't stop listening to this album to be quite honest. Black Mountain are a band that manage to give direct nods to great old bands and artists such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Neil Young and The Velvet Underground without ever sounding like a pale imitation (Wolfmother/The Darkness). They actually sound very fresh and new. The album contains a wonderful mixture of styles ranging from thumping hard rock and spacey progressive rock to gentle folk music. It's refreshing to see a modern band really lay down some big tremendous riffs that don't just sound like noise. Organs, mellotrons and synthesizers drone in and out of each track creating these deep sonic atmospheres that are really quite wonderful to listen to and experience. They are also not afraid of asking for a little patience and attention from the listener too - the epic track, Bright Lights, goes on for over sixteen minutes! There is not one dull track on this album, the arrangements and musicianship displayed in each song is quite masterful. If you're a fan of early seventies rock music and looking for something new I suggest you buy it.

Hypnotic and hard-rocking offering from leaders in a field of one
Not that you'd know it - what with this only being their second album - but Black Mountain main-man Stephen McBean has been around a long time. Then again, the tell-tale signs are all here: after all, you don't get to be this good at writing riffs overnight. And make no mistake, these are some of the best you'll hear all year - be they colossal, pedal-to-the-metal behemoths ('Stormy High') or delicate, exquisitely-crafted gems that lodge themselves in your brain and remain there for several days ('Wucan').

Every descriptive term used by previous reviewers - swirling, psychedelic, folky - is entirely apt, as are the references to the musical greats of the past. For those with a more modern taste, however... well, comparisons are little scarce. Not because Black Mountain sound old-fashioned, because they don't - and in fact, there is a distinct vivacity to these songs that makes a large proportion of the current crop of mainstream favourites sound extremely tired and dated. It's just that there isn't really anyone doing anything similar. That said, you may hear elements of My Morning Jacket, Queens of the Stone Age and the criminally underrated Oneida, so if they're among the artists on your current playlist, or you're one of the few listeners out there that doesn't get bored of a song after three minutes, this might just be your new favourite band.

Matt Pucci

Mature Music
I had my reservations initially as for me the album just, narrowly failed to take off on an initial listen. Maybe I didn't appreciate the fuzzy guitars properly, or maybe the laconicly drawled vocals just didn't hit the mark. Perhaps the Deep Purply organ bits were a bit derivative, or perhaps I couldn't quite get the way they build a song up, slow it down, let rip again, slow down again.... but one thing I did realise on my first encounter was that the drums are BRILLIANT, big noisy almost Glam Rock in places, smashing!

So I gave it another go, listening to the whole album again in a darkened room with a glass of whisky in my hand and it began to make sense. There are more ideas in here than in a career load of Arctic Monkey albums.

This is mature music, discerning music, cerebral music even. But it wigs out as well. All the pieces in themselves are interesting and well worth listening to in isolation but the album should be listened to as a whole as it comes together in a coherent and heavily melodic fashion. It's prog, it's psychedelic, it's heavy, it's beautiful! In fact this is the sort of album you will put on repeat for 4 or 5 listens at a time as there is so much in here.

(Worth getting the bonus album for the three extra tracks as well)