I find it hard to believe that in the year 2001 that bands like the The Black Crowes exist. I'm not going to come over all cynical music hack and make overblown statements like "Guitar music is dead!!! Long live the hedonistic post millennium trance Ibizan party". Its just that while we all like to listen to the Stones or Led Zep they were of their time and you have to realize there is a point where music moves on and explores new territories. A few years ago we needn't have worried about The Black Crowes - an album would have been released and simply faded away into obscurity. The difference between "Lions" and any other Black Crowes album is Noel Gallagher and Kelly Jones have decided they are spokesmen for the common man and gave a big thumbs up to "the most rock 'n' roll rock 'n' roll band in the world (their words, not mine).
If anything "Lions" is nothing more than a CD demo of Blues riffs. The sort you'd find on the front of Total Guitar or Guitarist Magazine. As a collection of songs it fails ultimately due to a total lack of originality and the lyrical pen of an imbecile. For all the criticisms of the acoustic Jeff Buckley wannabe's you can at least credit Coldplay or Starsailor with some memorable songs. Only "Soul Singing" even rises about the strictly average and with the success of Napster and MP3s you wouldn't have to take too long to download it for a fraction of the price.
In a world where pop bands are criticized for being bland and unoriginal its a shame to see that the alternative is a band who suffer the same fools. They may write and perform their own songs but you'll find more originality in the Hear'say album than this piece of pallid, lumpen, over-produced homage. And the reason why Noel and kelly are so keen to promote the Black Crowes - it wouldn't be so the band do likewise for them over in the states would it.
Alex McCann