Like I mentioned in my writeup of the new Flipper live album Fight that acts as a companion piece to their new album, I can't lie and say that I

wasn't worried about how their new album was going to turn out. I mean, it's been sixteen years since the San Francisco art-punks released their last album, the fairly tepid American Grafishy, and that was a "comeback" album. My records show that most attempts from bands of this era to reform and try to recapture the spark that made them so groundbreaking and ferocious in the first place usually ends, best case scenario, with a set of mediocre songs that would have been tough to sell as b-sides during their heydey. You've heard the same slop before, too. Thankfully, Flipper have managed to come out with a new album that not only avoids besmirching the memory of their classic 80's output, but which also pretty well fuckin' stomps. Now, I'm sure that there are some diehard old-school Flipper fans out there that might not be crazy about Bruce Loose moving to vocals from bass (played by Krist Novoselic of Nirvana fame on this album), but I dig his slurred, aggressive yowl and think it fits in with this new set of songs perfectly. And these songs are pretty great, loud and heavy, much heavier than previous albums which is probably due to Jack Endino sitting behind the board for Love, but it's pure Flipper, slow-to-midpaced sludgepunk jams like the catchy "Be Good Child!" and the lumbering "Transparent Blame" and the awesome slow-mo Sabbathoid grudgefuck of "Why Can't You See", which as heavy and nihilistic and wasted as anything these guys have ever recorded. Novoselic's bass is massive and contributes heavily to the lurching force of these songs, and the riffs are great, still rooted in Ted Falconi's signature style of sloppy hardcore and dissonant noise. And the song "Night Falls" is surprisingly becoming one of my new favorite Flipper songs; it's catchy and heavy and tough-sounding, a killer hook lodged at the heart of the bottom-heavy throb and angular wailing riffage while Bruce yowls out some of the most motivational lyrics that I've ever heard from this band. Cool shit. And they wrap it all up with another massive blot of sludgy heaviness with the album closer "Old Graves", which could have come right off of one of their early 80's albums. Yeah, this is no lukewarm rehash. Love is a crusher, proving that Flipper is just as relevant and punishing today as they were before all of the really bad shit went down. Recommended.