Sunday, October 05, 2008
A+E, Music, Reviews

BUCKCHERRY

“BLACK BUTTERFLY” (ATLANTIC-ELEVEN SEVEN)

When F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that there are no second acts in American life, he obviously hadn’t foreseen acts like Buckcherry. Breaking up after a 2002 sophomore major-label album tanked seemed to signal the end of a relatively promising career. Yet founding members/songwriters Joshua Todd and Keith Nelson hired new backing musicians in 2006, and with the help of the typically seedy “Crazy Bitch”—an instant pole-dance favorite—the band roared back as indie insurgents on a mission to save the world from faux Guns N’ Roses/Aerosmith wannabes.
  
Which is exactly what they strive to be. But Buckcherry is a reasonable substitute for cheap sex- and booze-obsessed hard rockers not afraid of including a smarmy arena ballad with the dumbed-down party tunes.

On this follow-up to “15,” the band doesn’t mess with success. The heavily tattooed Todd is a generally commanding vocalist, and exudes enough sexuality to pull off the Axl Rose role without undue embarrassment. Ditto for Nelson’s riffy guitar playing, which isn’t terribly distinctive but gets the job done on a batch of tunes that swagger with the excessive confidence of a band comfortable in its leather-clad, self-indulgent skin.
   
Lighter-waving power anthems such as “Don’t Go Away” sit uncomfortably next to the crotch-grabbing schlock of “Too Drunk to F**k,” just one of the F-bomb loaded, high-octane fist-pumpers that probably resonate better live—in front of a well-lubricated bunch of air-guitar playing headbangers—than they do on this entertaining yet derivative disc. 2.5 STARS—Hal Horowitz