The Black Crowes : A Pound of Feathers

The Black Crowes have had a rather consistent and impressive music career that’s spanned nearly 40 years. They established themselves as saviors of blues-based rock and roll with 1990s Shake Your Money Maker, an album that saw many AOR rock radio hits like “Hard To Handle”, “She Talks To Angels”, and “Twice as Hard”. The Robinson brothers led this Stones ‘n Soul rock group into the limelight and the Billboard 100 with relative ease.

That success seemed to have put a creative fire under the Crowes, as their next three albums saw them running away from bar band, dollar longneck good times and into darker, more serious musical excavations. The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, Amorica, and Three Snakes And One Charm were albums from a Black Crowes that craved heavier riffs, darker lyrical content, and touches of psychedelia throughout. They finished up the 90s with the brighter By Your Side, which returned to the sound of their debut and was their first record working with producer Kevin Shirley.

The last 25 years have seen the The Black Crowes making records in-between sibling fighting and solo projects, but always dropping something interesting every few years. Their last album, 2024s Happiness Bastards, was a fine return to form showing the riffier side of the Crowes as Rich and Chris Robinson found their love of rock and roll all over again. Their new album, A Pound of Feathers, continues that trend to great effect.

Album opener “Profane Prophecy” blows the doors off as it comes bulldozing in with equal parts Stones’ love and even touches of Kiss’ “Cold Gin” in the scuzzy guitar riff. “Cruel Streak” doesn’t relent, giving us a Jimmy Page-worthy guitar riff as Chris Robinson shows off his never-aging vocal pyrotechnics. “Pharmacy Chronicles” dips into Stones-y, “Moonlight Mile” territory that shows of the band’s penchant for drippy, soulful vocals and big acoustic strummers.

The album rocks and rolls with ease, as tracks like “Do The Parasite!”, “It’s Like That”, and “You Call This A Good Time?” reminisce in high octane rock that covers everything from AC/DC to Bad Company to the Stones. “High & Lonesome”, “Eros Blues”, and closer “Doomsday Doggerel” round out A Pound of Feathers in moody, bluesy dirges.

The Black Crowes are still very much in the rock and roll game, and A Pound of Feathers is proof of that.