BLACK COFFEE – Take One (Album Review)

Iced or steaming hot? How do you like your coffee? I take mine Black and powerful! The buzz has to be there and so has the strength. All these qualities can be found with the band called Black Coffee.

Black Coffee formed in early 2017 after drummer Tommy McCullough introduced singer/bassist, Ehab Omran, to guitarist Justin Young. From the Ohio area, these men provide a classic backdrop for the modern rock world. It would be easy to say the band sounds like this or that group, but would be a huge disservice to the guys. They are purely themselves.

Take One is their debut and it bounced out of the speakers with a puppy dog appeal hard to dislike. However, its opener of “Creamer” (a nod to coffee again? I think not) is a sucker punch of acoustic elegance. The real burst of caffeine is the single “I Barely Know Her“, with its dark fitting and throaty vocals. The production is tight and the drums kick serious ass. There are many echoes of past classic rock acts but you soon forget them as Black Coffee stamp their sound over the song.

At this point, I want to circle back to the album cover, which is so cool. The road sign design is fantastic and makes you want to check out the direction the band are moving in. This tends to also be an overall theme for the record, namely movement. From “The Traveller” to “Away“, the band focuses on moving.

Of the impressive set of compositions, the highlights for me are “Born To Lie” and the rifftastic “Psychedelic Red“.  The driving grooves of both really warrant subsequent ‘re-listens and make your day as high as any caffeine fix.

The road will be familiar, but this is a road being ridden on a great new set of tyres.  There is no bitterness in this coffee.  Get them in!

Buy: Take One

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