### Clutch: Strange cousins from the west

#### 07/08/09 || Habakuk

Clutch is a band that I got introduced to via GD, and I’m glad I was, as I have a feeling that in Germany these guys receive almost no exposure whatsoever (I was actually proven wrong a short while ago, so just accept that as a hyperbole) and would therefore have been kept from my eyes forevermore. At least I had the feeling that in other parts of the world, they’re in every major CD store. They aren’t, where I come from, so I collected their stuff from all over the world, more or less.

This most recent output by these sludge-rockers apparently made it into the billboard charts’ Top 40 or something in the first week of its release, so I read. Oh well. Probably not too bad for something released on their own label, Weathermaker Music, but what about the actual music?

The first song definitely justifies an umbrella as I cannot get over that stupid fucken awkward rhythm they employ on “Motherless child”. It just drags very badly. Do not like. Luckily, the sun comes out very quickly with the catchy “Struck down” and the rest of the album manages to hold a slightly higher standard. However, the guys obviously were in the mood to let their bluesier, slow side show. Tim Sult’s twangy guitar pulls the bandwagon sluggishly through the songs, and everything is kept at roughly the same, sip-ma-whiskey-tap-ma-foot tempo, except for maybe “Freakonomics”, thattill by the way starts a bit like “Run to the hills”. Thank Nietzsche that’s the only resemblance it bears to that mother of overplayed songs, but turns into a Clutch song instead. And that’s true for all the songs again, everything is clearly Clutch, it’s got the guitar, it’s got the southern-style flow, it’s got the intricate drumming, it’s got Neil Fallon’s obviously reality-inspired but cryptic lyrics, yet: Something is missing.

I think it does lack some of the fat groove they used to have when they still rode elephants. It all sounds a bit too thin and scratchy here, and only on few occasions like in “50,000 unstoppable Watts” does something roughly resembling an elephant walk by a couple of meters away. And somehow, there’s not enough going on for my tastes. They say the pauses make the music, and I would agree for the most part, but too many pauses in too many places stress my ADD-ridden temper. Maybe it’s the organ they got rid of a while ago, but “Strange cousins…” sounds a bit empty between notes at times and often fails to really grab my attention.

I must admit I still haven’t heard the predecessor, so maybe all that comes to no surprise for the people that have, but I’m still in the comfortable position to bitch about every change from 2004’s awesome “Blast tyrant” and 2005’s “Robot hive/Exodus” whose full sound is quite different from “Strange cousins…” and I must add that overall, I’m a bit disappointed. Maybe it needs more spins? I don’t know, of course, otherwise I would have given it the right amount already as I think favourably of Clutch in general, but for the time being I’ll keep listening to the old stuff. Sorry guys.

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Weathermaker
- Website: www.pro-rock.com
- Band
- Neil Fallon: guitars,vocals
- Tim Sult: guitars
- Dan Maines: bass
- Jean-Paul Gaster: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Motherless child
- 02. Struck down
- 03. 50,000 unstoppable Watts
- 04. Abraham Lincoln
- 05. Minotaur
- 06. The amazing Kreskin
- 07. Witchdoctor
- 08. Let a poor man be
- 09. Freakonomics
- 10. Algo ha cambiado
- 11. Sleestak lightning