Maladroit Blues for the Colorblind - Tracklist
1.Elvis Stressly: The King Of Rock And Woe
2.If Failure Is A Learning Experience, I Should Be A Genius 03:50
3.The Owls Asked Me, “Who?”
4.Hornswaggled By Consumer Culture, Again
5.Void, Holy Night
6.A Penny For My Thoughts, And Other Common Investment Blunders
7.Thoughts On The Finer Points Of Lesser Things
8.The Feral Philosophers
9.Is That A Wunderkammer In Your Foyer, Or Are You Just Haughty To See Me?
10.Expect Disappointment And I’ll Never Let You Down
11.This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Members
Jared Collins
Dusty Donley
Review
Blues/Doom/Stoner Rockers Mississippi Bones return with their eighth album Maladroit Blues For The Colorbllind and it sees the band return to their creative roots whilst forging an exciting chapter for themselves at the same time. The record has a stripped back attitude with Mississippi Bones going back to basics with how the music has been produced, recorded and ultimately delivered here on the final product.
The end result is a high voltage and hard rocking affair where the guys play a great style of Delta Blues, Grunge, Southern Rock, Psych, Doom and Stoner Rock passion which has a deceptive Americana quality way of life appearing within the lyrics. This is Mississippi Bones at their most daring and brutally honest than we’ve ever heard them. However, they’re also brilliantly funny with some laugh out lyrics appearing to lighten the mood. Look at the song titles which has always been one of the great things the band have shown over the extent of their impressive career.
The songs have a great organic sound and energy to them with a murky Grunge vibe being quite deceiving where the music suddenly changes from full on Heavy Rock to Semi Acoustic instrumental passages. Sometimes this feels like Mississippi Bones have been listening to the records they grew up with and this is perhaps why you can hear influences such as Johnny Cash, Alice In Chains Soundgarden, Black Sabbath, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, KISS, Clutch, Cactus and Led Zepp but I could be overthinking things there.
You’ll be surprised at how freaky, fuzzy, psychedelic and distorted that Maladroit Blues For The Colorblind can actually be as Mississippi Bones play different styles of Heavy Rock/Metal and Delta Blues for different songs contained on the album. Though, each played with the same level of great talent throughout. Sure, it can be way over the top but that doesn’t stop Mississippi Bones allowing the listener to have such a damn good time where they play some Classic Hard Rock and Heavy Metal sounds that will have you headbanging in time at all.
I wanted to do a song-by-song review for this album but there’s a lot to cover with this record and I would have been here for days on end. If you want a record that goes through multiple and different genres of the Heavy Rock spectrum whilst keeping that core “Blues Rock” sound that can be even full on Doom Rock then transforming into a sullen Country Rock number then Maladroit Blues For The Colorblind is the album for you.
The lyrics are constantly engaging which shows the band’s emotional thoughts and playful humour with that masterful storytelling element that’s only become one of the best things to fully emerge from Mississippi Bones over the last few albums of late.
Here are my favourite tracks from the album: Elvis Stressly: The King Of Rock And Woe, ‘If Failure Is A Learning Experience, I Should Be A Genius’, ‘Hornswaggled By Consumer Culture, Again’, ‘Void, Holy Night’, The Feral Philosophers and Expect Disappointment And I’ll Never Let You Down.
Yeah, the song titles can be a mouthful at times but each one tells you the type of track what to expect but it’s the epic creativity that’s hidden behind the song titles that make the journey so highly unexpected. The musical playing is first rate with Mississippi Bones playing instrumental passages with a real “whirlwind” / “tornado” quality. It’s quite hard to explain but you’ll fully understand when you listen to the whole album.
Maladroit Blues For The Colorblind is a superbly entertaining record that you can listen to all day long and still find something new you missed the first time round.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
Maldaroit Blues For The Colorblind is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl.
Links
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