4 out of 5

Label: Touch & Go

Producer: Steve Albini

This seems to rate low on Silkworm fans’ scales because its sorta’ round and ground and simple, but it’s also catchy as all hell and has some great, pure SKWM moments of soliloquy and punch.  It seems more crass than their average tales – though ‘Firewater’ certainly had its moments of debauchery and the kids love that disc, so who’s complaining – and perhaps doesn’t work any particular player to new frenzies, but I disagree with the Allmusic reviewer’s take that it’s not an ‘advancement’ – at the time – of the band’s sound.  I feel like once Phelps departed, the group started on a path of stripping down to a core ‘Worm rock and rumble, and each disc thereafter found slight tweaks on that formula.  So it wasn’t so much uphill growth as the years went on as learning how to fill the space the band had long ago carved out, yeah?  They got better and better at being Silkworm; they didn’t have to bother learning new chords and instruments.  And so ‘Blueblood’ is a pretty slick slab of rock.  ‘Developer’ before it had a sort of sad and poetic feel, and the following ‘Lifestyle’ sad and cynical, both with artwork and themes to match.  ‘Blood’ shows the dudes smirking on the cover, and that matches as well.  It’s a bit of a smug listen – the opening thrum of ‘Eff’ is a pretty bold lead-in and tracks like ‘Redeye’ are all smiles – but check closer ‘Clean’d Me Out’ or the bristling ‘Tonight We’re Meat.’  The smarts are still there.  And all the songs in between ain’t slouches at all, each with a memorable riff and chorus.  And the long association with Albini does the trick again, of course, the producer letting the band breathe in all the right places and maybe, upon request, micing it differently to get the harsher thump it seems like they’re might’ve been chasing.

There are those bands whose average recordings kick the pee out of some group’s bests.  Silkworm is one of those bands, and ‘Blueblood’ is better than average.  Maybe not your first request at the concert (…the concert that won’t happen anymore), but not something you’d hesitate to blast out your windows either.