Review Summary: Ninth time around, Clutch can still rock (and roll) with the best of them.
Clutch rock. In this context, it’s got nothing to do with your subjective view of the band, like going up to the bar band at the end of their set and yelling out “You guys ROCK!”. It’s simply what Clutch do. It’s what they have done on essentially every record they’ve released since their inception (and believe it, there’s been a lot), and it’s what they continue to do.
Strange Cousins from the West is the band’s ninth, and once you get past the ridiculously awesome packaging – easily the best album packaging of the year – it’s a continuation of what the sound Clutch has established for itself. What’s more, on the condition you don’t go into it expecting anything more, it’s very easily enjoyable.
You can try to avoid the comparisons if you want, but it ultimately comes down to one smidgen of truth: It’s no secret the gentlemen of Clutch are Black Sabbath fans. From the song structure to the free-form jamming, there’s plenty of influence to be found in their sound. Every track boasts thick, distorted riffs that Iommi himself would salute – opener "Motherless Child" could pass as a
Masters of Reality outtake, and "50,000 Unstoppable Watts" is backed by a crawling vintage lick that gets even better when the pace picks up. Additionally, Jean-Paul Gaster’s drum fills and crescendos are very similar in sound to that of Bill Ward’s – refreshingly, a very acoustics-based drum sound. It sounds so bizarre to compliment drums on a rock record for actually sounding like real drums, but plagues of overproduction have seen the gated snare rule for too long.
The idea of sounding somewhat like a musical time capsule is definitely intentional – the liner notes proudly point out which tracks featured vintage fifties, sixties and seventies gear. Even with all of this in mind, let’s try not get too carried away with their derivativeness. Sure, it’s a significant factor in their music, but it’s hard to take anything away from Clutch as a cohesive musical unit. To fault them technically as musicians and as a group is a close-to-impossible task, and thankfully, they do not take themselves too seriously.
Vocalist Neil Fallon is in fine form throughout Strange Cousins. His gritty, sneering moan may feel a little samey at times, but you’ll be damned if they don’t do their job. His melodramatic warble on “Abraham Lincoln” is so hilariously over the top as he recalls the titular character’s death that it somehow works brilliantly. Meanwhile, his pitch-breaking howl in album highlight "Let a Poor Man Be" adds a sharper edge to the mid-tempo desert rock jam, and magically turns the lyric “Strange cousins from the west overstay their welcome” into a headbanging hook on "Minotaur". What he lacks in range and sound diversity, he makes up for with plenteous energy and passion in his voice.
Strange Cousins is no bullsh
it rock & roll exactly how it should be done. A start-to-finish listen doesn’t get boring, and there’s plenty of tracks to please most rock fans. Having said that, if you haven’t “gotten” Clutch by now, this one ain’t gonna help you.
