Black Lips Tease Twangy New Direction

The Black Lips tease a twangy new direction with “Odelia,” a track off an album to be released in 2020 by Vice and storied UK indie label Fire Records.

“Odelia” begins Black Lips’ rumored dive into country music lore without departing from the band’s gritty rock ‘n’ roll roots. It sounds more like Gram Parsons’ cosmic American music and Parson pals The Rolling Stones’ version of country-rock than, say, early rockabilly or honky-tonk. Of course, the Black Lips rarely stay in the same lane for long, so the next song or two hopefully draw comparisons to Tommy Collins and Lefty Frizzell.

One of Atlanta’s best musical exports cut its next album at Laurel Canyon’s legendary Valentine Recording Studios with engineer and co-producer Nicolas Jodoin, the co-engineer on Lana Del Rey’s NFR!

As for the Black Lips’ new label home, Fire will soon add to a catalog that since the ’80s has included releases by Spacemen 3, Neutral Milk Hotel, Teenage Fanclub and Guided by Voices. At the very least, one of those acts shortens a country-inspired band’s degrees of separation from Bobby Bare.