Self-Titled

The Almighty Defenders

By: Geoffrey Brown

Earlier this year the Black Lips undertook what turned out to be, by all accounts, a disastrous tour of India, one that forced them to flee before it was over. Flee they did, directly to Berlin, where it just so happened that Mark Sultan, a.k.a. BBQ, was in town visiting frequent collaborator King Khan. And if Defenders sounds exactly as you might think a collaborative record by these guys would sound if they spent but a week writing and recording it - and it does, with more than occasionally muddy sound - it also sounds like a group of capable musicians hanging around and having a blast, glad to be together. If this ain't quite as good as being there, it's still about as close as it can get.

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