A post mortem delivery (sic) by one of the last and few 60s,true revolutionaries, Wayne Kramer,guitarist of MC5. This is the first album of new material in 53 years. Not long after completing work on Heavy Lifting, the band's first studio record since 1971's High Time, mainstay singer and guitarist Wayne Kramer died of cancer in February 2024 at age 75. Three months later, original drummer Dennis Thompson, who plays on two Heavy Lifting songs, also died. (Between those two deaths, the band's former firebrand manager John Sinclair also passed away.). So this album is the collective work of mostly Kramer and a bunch of musicians who felt honoured to work with their idol and emblematic persons of the 60s counterculture and revolution scene and grandfather of the punk rock and proto metal scene.. Kramer isn't alone here, having recruited famous friends and fans Tom Morello, Vernon Reid, Slash, Don Was and producer Bob Ezrin to revitalize MC5 one last time.“Live long and stay creative is my attitude,” Wayne Kramer said just a few months before his death, aged 75, in February this year.
The album is an ode to 60s distorted rock,Soul and hard rock in places. "Barbarians At The Gate" has new frontman and co-writer Brad Brooks in a strident voice as he rails against those in society who ‘want to live a lie on the edge of hate’. Kramer is as always, , venomous and surgical accurate in his note choosing, never let the fretwork indulgence overcome the sonic agility of his 60s punk roots. The album is a vivid organization with various singers supporting the last musical dream of Kramer realization.Alice In Chains’ William Duvall voices Kramer’s recollection at "The Edge Of The Switchblade", while on the same up-tempo pace "Blind Eye' struggles with power. But Kramers sardonic humor blossoms at funk-rock influenced "Because Of Your Car" with tongue in cheek lyrics and full of alternative groove while equally groovy straight outta the funky 70s comes Edwin Starr’s 60s soul stomper "Twenty-Five Miles,". Stand out tracks from me are the 'Change,no change" 60's inspired track and the hard rocking "Boys who play with matches" and "I am the fun (The phoney)".
MC5's "Heavy lifting" is a last call for revolution and at the same time a last call for farewell drinks, the closing chapter to a history written, with blood, guts,teargassed, devotion to social rights fights, belief in humanity,equality and real progress. A band far more left wing on their ideas than their sound in their early days who paid their dues and delivered some truly inspiring,riff driven ,garage,hard,punk rock with soul where the improvisation met the great jazz musicians. Now it is for the younger generations to do the Heavy lifting as MC5 have moved to the time of the legends.
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