IN REVIEW: Clutch - "Book of Bad Decisions"

Clutch's twelfth album begins with a song about a bad experience during their formative years; Gimme the Keys tells the tale of a band playing a terrible venue and making a getaway from some very angry people. It's energetic, bombastic and right in the Clutch wheelhouse.

Tellingly, it might also be the weakest song on the album.

Having built a reputation for the quality of both their albums and their live show, Clutch spent their last two album cycles recommitting to rock; Earth Rocker and Psychic Warfare were no muss, no fuss rock records, a pair of albums that further enhanced their formidable resumé. With Book of Bad Decisions, they're ready to expand their sound while keeping their core aesthetic intact. For this record, they worked with producer Vance Powell, whose award-winning expertise has resulted in some decisions here that are far from bad.

One of the album's most thrilling surprises is In Walks Barbarella, a song that could be considered a standard Clutch rocker if not for the addition of a horn section (which is used on some other tracks as well). This simple addition transforms the song into a four minute long endorphin rush, resulting in Clutch's most satisfying single since Electric Worry. Elsewhere, there are little flourishes that seem small but make a big difference. The pounding piano on Vision Quest, the flange on H.B. is in Control, the swampy blues licks on Hot Bottom Feeder, all subtle evolutions for a band that's made a career out of slow evolution.

Throughout, there's plenty of the established Clutch energy that's made them one of rock's most vital entities; How to Shake Hands and Sonic Counselor find Neil Fallon in peak showman mode, while the title track, A Good Fire and Ghoul Wrangler feature the unmistakable ZZ Top-inspired boogie that's become more prevalent on recent albums. Meanwhile, the slower numbers hit with the same inimitable slow burning fire that offers reprieve from the high energy track list and allows the band to stretch their legs, so to speak. Emily Dickinson and Lorelei both excel in this, punctuating the album's two halves perfectly.

Typically, my gripe with an album such as Book of Bad Decisions would be the quantity; at fifteen tracks with no interludes or instrumentals, there's always the risk of a few filler songs bogging an album down. Clutch, however, are so in the zone on this album that even its weakest moments (the aforementioned Gimme the Keys, Weird Times and H.B. is in Control) all have merit in their own right and only suffer due to the quality of the songs that surround them.

It seems as though every time Clutch threatens to become the least bit stale, they switch things up just enough to inject more life into their sound while maintaining the standard that longtime fans have held them up to. It's a remarkable achievement, to stay on top of their game as they have for as long as they have (2018 marks the 25th anniversary of their first album). With Book of Bad Decisions, Clutch just proves yet again that they are incapable of mediocrity.

September 7, 2018 • Weathermaker
Highlights How to Shake Hands • In Walks Barbarella • Sonic Counselor

Year in Rock 2025

Alright, I've got some explaining to do. By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but: a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider . W...

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...

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