2 out of 5

Label: Jagjaguar

Produced by: Black Mountain, Colin Stewart (recorded by)

There was a key moment where Black Mountain worked for me: sophomore album In the Future. I’ve gone back and forth on theorizing the influence if producers and mixers on sharpening the band’s sound for that album, but it is nonetheless a sharpening of what’s there, as I’ve definitely enjoyed the group’s slavish throwback stoner rock at various points… just that Stephen McBean and crew have a tendency to linger in tropes without much innovation, and when that doesn’t have additional production/ engineering / mixing polish, it can be pretty undistinguished.

Which is mostly where we land with this EP, which is about as tropey and “hey, this sounds like [insert 70s reference]” as the band gets, without any songs or moments to at least dash things with some personality. In trying to throw my ears back to 2005, when this was released, I know I was especially sensitive to bands mining this type of sound, as it was part of a giant wave of related nostalgia-tickling bands that, in a burgeoning internet age, garnered a bit more direct media attention, which… annoyed me more. Because I was a jerk. But parts of what I responded to apply now, when revisiting: that some bands / songs, beyond the sounds-like buzz, just aren’t all that interesting, wrapping back around to where this paragraph started; knowing Black Mountain is capable of more oomph-y riffs, and more impassioned singing (and more interestingly intwined vocals), the slow-burn-to-nowhere of the title track and followup Buffalo Swan are both pretty underwhelming, with grooving rocker Bicycle Man an appreciated juxtaposition, but, similarly, not really pushing for much beyond exactly what the genre demands: some big riffs, some reverb, and a lot of fuzz. None of this is bad, I’m just knocking it for being without much character, furthered by the Bowie / Stones nods of No Satisfaction.

Back in the day, I would’ve been triggered by this EP on whatever cool-kid principles I thought I had: that Black Mountain was being a band that just wanted to play songs that sounded like someone else, from a previous era. Now, I guess I’m equally triggered, but almost moreso because I’ve heard the band able to iterate on that fandom for much more engaging output.