Wolfmother – Victorious

Back in September I reviewed Wolfmother’s 10th anniversary release and commented that it seemed as if they had been around for a lot longer than a single decade.  I also mentioned that the new album to be released early 2016 would be only their fourth studio album in that time.  Not a prolific band then, but as we all know, quality is preferable to quantity and Wolfmother’s output has always been guaranteed to be nothing if not pure quality.  The new album, Victorious, was released this past Friday, Feb 19th.  The album was recorded at Henson Studios in LA with Grammy award winning producer Brendan O’Brien.  Wolfmother has essentially become a solo project for frontman Andrew Stockdale, who plays guitar and bass as well as his usual vocal duties.  Josh Freese and Joey Waronker came in to split the role of drummer but other than that it’s very much Stockdale’s project, something he says is, “a good way to do things because it can make the style more cohesive.”  He has definitely been successful in finding that cohesive sound, but the down side of that is that the whole album is very same-y.  It’s a very short album, coming in just over half an hour.  Individually each song is full of the quality I’ve said is associated with Wolfmother.  The problem is that as a whole the songs blend into each other and nothing really stands out.  It starts off with a bang, with the riff laden The Love that you Give, followed by title track and single Victorious.  It’s a very catchy song and will no doubt be hugely popular on the upcoming tour.  Baroness breaks things down a little, with a much slower paced, dirtier groove, driven by the bass line and percussion including copious amounts of tambourine, which isn’t as folky as it sounds.  Pretty Peggy continues the theme, with a whoa-oh-oh section giving it a very ‘singalong round the campfire’ feel.  The guitar takes over again and picks up the pace on City Lights and Simple Life.  This theme continues, with some tracks being more guitar driven and others, e.g. Best of a Bad Situation relying on more rustic measures, like hand clapping.  As the album closes out, with Happy Face and Eye of the Beholder I can’t help but feel that if the purpose of the album was to find a cohesive sound then it’s very much mission accomplished, but Wolfmother can, and have, produced much better.

Featured Track: Gypsy Caravan is the highlight of the album for me, classic Wolfmother and guaranteed to sound great on the tour which has been named after it.  Stockdale’s vocal is at it’s best and the riff that drives the track is an air guitarist’s dream.  The Gypsy Caravan tour will be in the UK between 8th – 20th April.  Tour dates can be found at the links below.

Track Listing:

• The Love That You Give
• Victorious
• Baroness
• Pretty Peggy
• City Lights
• Simple Life
• Best of a Bad Situation
• Gypsy Caravan
• Happy Face
• Eye Of The Beholder

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