The Black Lips - Short Fuse [Single]

Vice

The Black Lips are brilliant band. They are fantastic live and on record, and up until now there has not been much they have produced that has fallen short of any expectations their fans may have. They particularly know how to write great 3 minute pop singles, just like Mum never used to make. “Short Fuse”, the first single to be taken from new album 200 Million Thousand is not quite one of them.

Written and sang by drummer Joe Bradley (he even directed the animated video), “Short Fuse” is almost brilliant. It’s as familiarly retro as you would expect from The Black Lips, if a little more country rock retro than garage or psychedelic rock for a change, but for some reason Bradley’s voice is actually somehow less impressive than it is live. His vocals are more restrained here, and perhaps that’s the problem. You see the vocals do actually fit the song well and it’s the song itself that is more restrained than you would expect from this band. As short as the fuse may be, sadly this song never manages to explode.

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