Black Stone Cherry - The Human Condition

 "The Human Condition" is the 8th album by American hard rock band Black Stone Cherry. Surprisingly although they have been around since 2001, they have only just come on to my radar in the last month.  I haven't had the chance to really delve into their back catalogue but I have heard the majority of their hits over the course of their career and based on first impressions they seem to have quite a lot.  Most notably songs like "Blind Man", "Me and Mary Jane", "Blame it on the boom boom" and "White trash millionaire" to name a few.

But it was listening to the new singles from this album that were released in the run up to the album coming out which drew me in.  These are "Ringin' in my head" and "Again" which fittingly are tracks 1 and 2 on the album respectively.  "Ringin' in my head" is quite possibly the most polite start to an album I've heard as Chris Robertson the lead singer sings "People, people your attention please" as the opening line.  What a nice introduction to the band and the album to draw the listener in.  I'm not really sure if this song is written about covid or not as he goes on to sing "I gotta tell you all about a new disease, its snuck right up from beneath our nose....". So maybe is.

I would say generally this is a pretty heavy album and the songs are pretty, straight and to the point.  There are some songs  which have small silences before they start, almost acting like mini breaks in the album but usually they are just about 10 seconds.  I would probably say my favourite songs are the power ballads of the album.  I say this because they do feel still quite heavy and certainly not stripped down songs but I reckon you could still get the lighters out at gigs.  They are "When angels learn to fly" and "If my heart had wings".  Funny how they are both about flying.

Another potential covid track is "Live this way" with Robertson wailing in the chorus "Life is way too short, to live this way".  Whether it was written pre covid or or about covid. It's pretty appropriate timing regardless.   Maybe because of this I am drawn to this and could quite easily become an anthem if they were to release it as a single.  But for their third single after releasing "Ringin' in my head" and "Again"; they released "In Love the pain".  This song has such a good riff and another great chorus.  It does feel many of the heavier songs do have a certain general formula but each song still has some sort of uniqueness. But it works which makes it all worthwhile.

Interestingly even though it is a 13 track album they felt the need to put a cover in there too.  Track 10 on the album "Don't bring me down" is a cover of the Electric light Orchestra song which was originally released in 1979 on their "Discovery" album.  It certainly doesn't feel out of place on "The Human Condition".  In fact it fits in quite nicely.  I don't think they have surpassed the original but they certainly haven't murdered it either.

Overall I am glad to have found Black Stone Cherry.  I may have been very late to the party with BCS but I'm here now and this album in my opinion is a triumph.  I feel I have only scratched the surface talking about a few tracks on the album.    But it is very good all the way through.