Wolfmother – Victorious

Wolfmother – Victorious

Universal – 2016

Rock

Rated: ****

To be honest. I had actually and probably unfairly written Wolfmother off completely. Even though sophomore release Cosmic Egg (2009) and their third record New Crown (2014) definitely had some merit. But for some reason they just couldn’t grab me enough. But after listening to the new album Victorious I reckon we should revisit those earlier releases. Sure, we can all agree that Wolfmother is a one-man-project. It is vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Stockdale that pulled the strings for the earlier records and decided to do everything himself on the new one. Or well, almost everything, cause Mr. Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle) was contracted to do the drums as well as Joey Waronker (Beck, REM). Wolfmother’s live bassplayer Ian Perez delivered some wild organ sounds and Brendan O’ Brian did the production and some extra instrumentation here and there. All in all, we could assume that this would lead do an album that would probably sound like studio work and not a real band. This is not the case even though the lead high pitched vocals and screeching guitars by Stockdale are definitely center focus, the rest isn’t just background filling. And this leads to a highly entertaining album that draws its strength from a bit of psych and hardrock, steadied by that wild seventies sound. Perhaps it is just the case of whether Stockdale’s inspiration soared high enough to capture an albums worth and perhaps there was just not as much off the muse around on Cosmic Egg and New Crown as on the new one. Cause Victorious comes as a damn pleasant surprise, with enough damn fine truckers and sweet working ballads to make sure the following tour will become one big victory lap. I’m on board and shall cheer them on! Hooray! Hooray!

(Written by JK)

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