Black Mountain: In The Future
Posted on March 24, 2008
Filed Under Journal
I’ve been a big fan of this band for a while now, and also lead singer Stephen McBean’s other project, the Pink Mountaintops. Good stuff. And the new album is good too. Musically, they are at the top of their game. Keeping up with bringing old ’70′s rock (Sabbath, etc.) back in a big, mean way. Synths, big guitars, and on this album, even more complicated songs, etc. Most of the reviews generally agree with that.
But I have one pretty major gripe that nobody seems to be talking about. Here it is: why oh why did the female vocalist Amber Webber turn into some kind of warbler (and I mean the bird variety) when singing live? There is some weird vocal thing she is doing, a pronounced vibrato. Or maybe this vocal thing has some other technical name, I dunno. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s OK the first few times… but why so much of it? Listen for yourself to the podcast available via NPR’s All Songs Considered Live podcasts.
She warbles on every damn song! Even the old ones… like “Don’t Run our Hearts Around.” So distracting… it gets old for me fast and it honestly just doesn’t sound that good. It’s not so much of an issue on the album, they judiciously used it sparingly, and the mixes are different for studio vs live shows. Other than that, I’ll continue to listen, even though I am finding myself trying to find the warble on the album now after listening to that live show.
Anyway, if you haven’t checked them out before, the band’s back story is very cool, take a peek on wikipedia. And have a look at their website for news, dates, and such.