Cosmic Egg Needs Salt For Better Taste

No doubt everyone is aware of Wolfmother's return. After their solid performance in the Melkweg I was eagerly awaiting the new album 'Cosmic Egg'. Appearently named after a yoga pose I was hoping it would be anything but too relaxed and would be a steaming hot rock album like their live performances.

Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg (Ronald Says 6 out of 10)

Andrew Stockdale and his newly formed band seem eager and excited to continue the success of the first album. That debut was a smashing album full of 70s inspired rock. Big in sound and ambition without getting cheesy. With this new album it's interesting to see if Stockdale could take it up a level and turn the concept of the debut into an instant classic on this one. All the ingredients (potential, talent and a solid band) were there to come up with a killer rock album. Too bad he didn't succeed. 'Cosmic Egg' isn't all that bad but it certainly isn't close to be regarded a killer album. Instead it continues the road of the debut album without exploring new directions or trying to lift it to a higher plan. Or to cut it short: it's more of the same.

The album doesn't start off badly. Opening track 'California Queen' is a good rock song with a nice groove. What follows are more songs with the same recipe. 'White Feather' has an AC/DC kind of guitar riff and feel but without the power of the famous hard rock band from the same continent. That seems to be missing from the album compared to the previous one. It's all more polished and less pompous but therefore less convincing. A song like 'Violence Of The Sun' has more electronic influences giving it a bit more modern sound but somehow never really takes off. The bonus track 'Back Round' which was available as a free download a while ago turned out to be a great teaser but the album simply just doesn't live up to that promise.

Fans of old style rock like me can amd probably still will enjoy the album a lot. Somehow it just feels that it could have been so much better. It's less Zeppelin this time and more Black Sabbath and sometimes it's almost like you can hear The Prince Of Darkness himself singing. The record simply is lacking songs that are above avarage let alone of the same level as rock classics like 'War Pigs' or 'Paranoid'.