[rating=2.00]
Natural Child come from Nashville and call themselves “the greatest rock n’ roll band in the world”. Known as much for this bold sense of humor and hard partying ways as much as their rocking live show, the band recently released a 1971 on Infinity Cat Recordings. The sound is raw, loose, and limber, vacillating between the Stones-y demarcation points of bluesy R&B and rollicking acoustic numbers. This ramshackle construction seems to be part of the band’s allure. At any moment self-destruction sounds possible.
Straightforward stoner rock grooves highlight a number of tracks, chugging along pleasantly enough but finding nothing particularly engaging. Natural Child often sounds like a group of friends got together, turned the guitars up and tried to recreate their favorite classic rock. Lyrics take the “Lets find some pretty girls to show us a real good time” angle, or even “cut your bullshit son and lets get high”. There are short bursts of punky pop and detuned Black Sabbath riffs that fill in the spaces between the Stones homages. Hints of T-Rex find their way inside the sparse grooves. Natural Child’s blood sounds as if it burns with copious amounts of cocaine and whiskey. While their bold proclamations reflect the simultaneous occurrence of drug induced delusions of grandeur and a witty self deprecating humor, the fact is Natural Child plays like glorified barroom rock.
