Black Stone Cherry
Celebrate EP
Mascot Records
Kentucky’s finest have somehow bettered all the bits that make them the Southern rock superheroes we spin again and again. Because ‘Celebrate EP’ is Black Stone Cherry of biblical proportions. Everything that makes them country blues’ hardest hitters is here in just seven tracks. That big, bruising wall of sound that is so BSC (‘What You’re Made Of’), a feral little knowing wink of hip-grinding sleaze (‘Caught Up in the Up Down’, which is a little more subtle that ‘Blame it on the Boom Boom’. Marginally). Breathtaking cry-for-help power ballad ‘Deep’, Euphoric therapy session in a song ‘Celebrate’ shows these boys aren’t just your fave band – they’re your hype men too. Final song ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ actually is the cover of Simple Minds’ classic that you’re thinking of. And if you don’t yell along to the opening ‘Hey hey hey heeeeeyyyy!’ we have a situation. Each track is pleading to be played live. ‘Celebrate EP’ is colossal and words just can’t do it justice.
https://www.facebook.com/blackstonecherry
Review by Jo Wright