3 out of 5

Label: Jagjaguwar

Produced by: D. Sardy, Randall Dunn, Black Mountain

The immediacy of opening track The Hair Song is absolutely energizing: here is the psych-soaked Black Mountain, having smelt the smelling salts to alertness, wielding their guitars and dueling male / female vocals with the gusto of people with something to say.

Only I’m not sure if message-laden immediacy is the best fit for a stoner rock band.

On prior releases, Black Mountain’s slow, moody approach – while resulting in similar 4-5 minute track lengths as what we have here – imbues the music with an epic vibe.  You’d instantly nod along to the dreamy beat, and the mingling singing of Stephen McBean and Amber Webber painted subtly haunting or affecting imagery and themes.  Wilderness Heart doesn’t necessarily ditch that, or at least we’re still swirling in wurlitzers and fuzzy riffs and plodding drums, but the patience of the compositions feels lacking, eager to get to the meat and potatoes, and this sacrifices memorability: these songs, though quality rockers, feel slight, covering generic rock topics (or so it seems) and ending on the same riffs on which they began.

This works well when the group is fully rocking out – like that opener, or the headbanging title track – but elsewhere it’s ephemeral.  My toe definitely taps and I acknowledge the rawk, but the tracks just weren’t getting stuck in my head.  Producer Dave Sardy seems equally confused with how to handle his approach – go for living room warmth or in-yer-face immediacy – and thus the recording follows the same pattern: when volume hits a certain mark, things groove really well, but are otherwise somewhat flat.

If this all sounds negative, it’s only because of the high bar the group had previously set.  Heart is certainly a 70s-inspired folkish rock disc to be proud of, but it lumps the group more with the many soundalikes in this genre who came and went, when the standout moments prove Black Mountain has the chops to be much, much more.