[rating=7.00]
On the Austin, Texas-based outfit’s seventh studio effort, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears let you know that they are fed up with a lot of things. Fake friends betrayal, the music business, lost dreams, self-inflicted pain, ex-lovers, racists and more get addressed on The Difference Between Me & You and while the lyrics spill out bluntly, they don’t always sync up with the group’s fierce combo of blues, soul, funk and retro rock and roll.
Opening with “Nothing But A Cliché” Lewis tears into raw electric blues with fuzzed up guitars (including his best fiery solo on the record) around lyrics calling out a failed friend who was only into it for personal interests. The Black Keys’ influenced “She Came On To Me” distortedly addresses a distorted relationship while “Face In The Scene” dabbles in slow soul never taking off, perhaps weighed down by the disappointment of seeing someone, who has now become no one.
“Suit or Soul” is a cool funky grooving Blaxploitation jam that deals with exploitation directly while the rage turns more specifically political for the country rock of “Culture Vulture”. Lewis directly shouts down fascists with the lines “Online you stay all night/ What they want they already have/ Tiki torches & haircuts blaming somebody you never meet/ That’s porno for the agency” however, the tracks soulful “oohs”, upbeat strums and jangle can mask the message underneath; it is odd the prettiest music on the record attacks such ugliness.
There is an obvious dark current flowing through the album fully captured on the groups paranoid late night pulsing take of Wilco’s “Handshake Drugs”. This cover is strung out; it’s as if those taxis are speeding for a fix in Spy Hunter fashion through the empty Texas night.
Even when the players push it upbeat and funky that palpable pain is present. “Do Yourself In” disturbingly takes the title literally over a pounding banger that never matches up with the finality of the lyrics while “No Rhyme or Reason” more successful pushes its pumping horns and funky strutting before a clashing finale playing like mid-career Stevie Wonder jamming with The Stooges.
The group sprinkles in their Texas blues via the galloping “Hemmin And Hawwin” the boogieing (by way of ZZ Top or Gary Clark Jr.) “Some Conversations You Just Don’t Need” and the disk closing rumble of “Girls on Bikes” but this album is more about what lurks around the edges of anger and disappointment.
On the statement song “Gut Feeling”, a muscular vamp where James Brown mingles with Sergio Leone, Lewis spells out his frustrations directly addressing insanity, loneliness and suicide (again). The track both calls for help while simultaneously calling asses to the dance floor, a recurring theme whose diametric combo can be jarring.
The Difference Between Me & You is a vivid example of a 2018 modern raw blues record as Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears struggle to survive tough emotional/political times, asking the question, can you still rock/party/play through the pain?
