Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg (Album)
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During my listen-through of Wolfmother's long-awaited second album Cosmic Egg, my iTunes pulled a swifty and shuffled to an older WM track, The White Unicorn. Not only was it a track from the previous album, but it was the EP version (released 2004, a good five years ago). The contrast between the track I'd listened to just prior (Sundial, track four on Cosmic Egg) and the older EP cut was palpable. The 2004 EP, the band's first release, was sludgy and fuzzy and anything but polished. It didn't feel derivative, it felt authentic.
The 2005 release of their debut, self-titled album stripped away a lot of that authenticity, buffing the band's seventies rock veneer to a sun-like radiance. The songwriting talent of Stockdale was brought to the forefront but the atmosphere was lost. Cosmic Egg has seen yet another tonal shift. Where the Wolfmother EP was lo-fi fuzz rock and the self-titled album was polished seventies-influenced rock'n'roll, Cosmic Egg is loud, hard stoner rock reminiscent of Kyuss and Black Sabbath with some pop-rock sensibilities mixed in.
The idea of heavy riffage and incredibly catchy songwriting is not unfamiliar; American stoner band CKY perfected the concept on pinnacle release Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild. Here, Wolfmother blend said concept with their sixties and seventies influences and come up with something that, on first listen, might sound like a dull, heavy bunch of faux-metal and is, however, anything but. Highlights include amazingly rifftastic Pilgrim, aforementioned Sundial, Led Zeppelin-esque In The Morning, the refreshingly upbeat and undeniably vintage White Feather and Far Away, which features some breathtakingly hook-laden songwriting and some great guitar solos.
I've been a fan of Wolfmother since before their first release and I've followed them through the popularity, the hiatus, the speculation and the line-up change. My verdict on Cosmic Egg? It's been worth the wait. For those new to Wolfmother and who like a heavier style of rock, you might want to check this out. You could be in for a pleasant surprise.
