Reverend Horton Heat--Revival
Packaging--
The good:
I'd have to say this is one of the sharpest looking Horton albums to date. Most of the band's albums have fairly simple artwork, so this nice looking digipak is definitely the most elaborate. The cover has a very old school tattoo feel as does the rest of the art. Inside you get a couple photos and album credits. No lyrics and no booklet, just the digipak art.
The bad:
Two gripes. First off, as nice as this looks, I still have a problem with digipaks. If the teeth that hold the CD in place break you're screwed. Second, lyrics are important to include. The Rev rarely includes them, so it's no big shock but they would've been nice. This does have a nice "feel" to it.
The music:
The good:
Many bands will put their best material at the beginning and end of their albums and put a bunch of mediocre filler in the middle...the Rev has been guilty of this before. This album is quite the opposite. The great songs are in the middle, and the mediocre stuff is at the ends.
The good songs begin with "Indigo Friends" which is a very rocking number. Fast paced, loud guitars, a really good rock song. Then "Someone in Heaven," a song the Rev wrote about his mother who recently passed away. I'd put this down as the Rev's best ballad type song, if not ever, than in a long time. The next two songs are well written catchy songs, but from there it goes downhill.
That's not to say what we have here is "bad"...it's not. But, it's not the psychobilly we've come to know, love, and expect from the Rev. There's really no spastic guitars on here, no double bass, no bass slapping madness. Many of these songs are pretty much straight up blues. I respect that bands feel the need to change, and if a band is going to expand, incorporating more blues is a good way to go (far better than say, rap). But, I guess I feel disappointed when I expect mostly rocking songs and get two ("Goin' Back Home" is the other excellent rocker).
The bad--
I can honestly say I feel bad for the Rev at this point. The band peaked very early on. Their first album was good and the two that followed, Full Custom Gospel Sounds and Liquor in the Front, were some of the best psychobilly music ever recorded (if not the best period). After that, things just started slipping. Martini Time was okay and Space Heater was terrible. The last two, Spend a Night in the Box and Lucky 7 were good...I'd even say great, but the problem is they don't compare to the early material.
Sometimes bands peak and can't ever top what they've done. Metallica, I would have to say, can never put out anything remotely close to their first three albums. Everything since Puppets has been downhill. Megadeth? It almost would've been better if they never recorded "Rust in Peace." Nothing can compare. Brother's Keeper did the smart thing and called it quits after putting out their best album, "Fantasy Killer."
And here we have the Rev. I'd imagine when you play a style of music for ten years you begin to feel like you're just treading water, so you try to expand. The Rev does this with blues; and while it's done well, it's not exceptional. I just don't feel excited by this.
The Rev sounds tired. I listened to this album a bunch of times and couldn't place my finger on it and one day it clicked, he just sounds tired. I don't really hear the energy, I don't hear the "psycho." It's not "bad." It's certainly better than Space Heater, but it's not great. There's something off with the production as well that I can't place my finger on. It just feels like they're going through the motions and churning out another album because they have to.
The DVD
The good
Three live Horton songs and a 20 minute interview type thing with the Rev. The bad
Okay, I generally don't complain about free DVDs, but...the songs and interview on here are from the band's full length DVD. I find that to be quite lame. The menus are even the same! I'm sure these guys have played a House of Blues, why not get the video for one of those shows? Why not do a google search, get a copy of a bootleg and put that on?
But I'm going to have to say, when I bought the full length DVD I was disappointed by it. The sound quality simply does not capture the band's energy. I think it actually sounds too clear, too crisp...basically, too sterile. This is a problem with many soundboard bootlegs...it just sounds very cold and sterile.
Recap�
Rev fans will probably enjoy this, but it takes some getting used to. The energy just isn't there, the "edge" the band had has dulled. They're still better than most of the shit being put out, but what we're hearing is a band most likely past their prime.
It should be noted that Reverend Horton Heat albums tend to age well. I remember strongly disliking "Spend A Night in the Box" and I now think that's an excellent album. If this one doesn't strike you right away, don't give up on it---put it on the shelf for a while and revisit every so often, I'll bet it will improve with age.
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Review by Chris