CD review BLACK STONE CHERRY ‘The Human Condition’

Black Stone Cherry have their seventh full-length longplayer in the pipeline, an album called ‘The Human Condition’. With ‘Again’ and ‘Ringin’ in My Head’, two singles have been released already, being an appetizer for the longplayer. The latter is actually the opener of the album, spreading a cool groove right away. The tune goes back to 2017 when the band started to write the track. At the time the song didn’t make it on the album but evolved over time. With a few extra moments of attention, the tracks leads-off the new album and provides a solid start into ‘The Human Condition’.

‘The Human Condition’ is a Covid-product, considering the time when the band worked on the album. It was in the beginning of the pandemic when the Black Stone Cherry finished their new longplayer. Although work on songs and album started before the pandemic, it’s scary how much of the lyrical ideas/thoughts can be transferred into the current global situation. “People, people your attention please, I need to tell you about a new disease” is the first line of the album and what would fit better into there and now.

When it comes to the 13 songs on the album, Black Stone Cherry delivers solid rock songs in the typical Black Stone Cherry fashion. There are powerful tracks like ‘Push Down & Turn’, the gently swinging ‘When Angels Learn to Fly’ and the heavy pounding ‘The Chain’. ‘Ride’ is another energy boost, while the soulful aspect is manifested by ‘If My Heart Had Wings’. All this sounds positive and still there is the final spice missing. You could almost get the impression that the while pandemic and the attention it gets was a distractor at the time. It’s the final punch that’s missing on ‘The Human Condition’, the moments that wows right away. It’s a bit like tasty Hausmannkost, good but not fully thrillinging. That goes even for ‘Don’t Bring me Down’, a cover version of the big ELO hit.

‘The Human Condition’ is by far not a bad album. It carries good rock music without big surprises. These little moments would have been the little extra to lift the album from ‘good’ to ‘very good’.