Black Eye Galaxy

Anders Osborne extended his reach as a guitarist, songwriter, and recording artist on his Alligator debut, American Patchwork, in 2010. It was louder, wilder, and more psychically free than anything he’d issued previously, while retaining his singer/songwriter skills so wonderfully displayed on 2007’s Coming Down. Black Eye Galaxy is the culmination of this trilogy, albeit being a startlingly new entity. It seamlessly marries desperate, overloaded, molten hard rock and blues to expertly written songs that grow more tender, accepting, and optimistic by the set’s close. Osborne creates something totally his own; genres cease to matter. Co-produced by Osborne, Stanton Moore, and engineer Warren Riker, the meld of sounds is immediate, gripping, sometimes harrowing, and always uncompromising no matter what is being expressed. The primal “Send Me a Friend” is a boatload of riff-and-roar. It’s a redefinition of the blues regardless of whether it follows 12 bars. The song is about the complete isolation of addiction; it’s a howl of terror and pleading to an unknown God with bludgeoning riffs and a ripping solo. “Mind of a Junkie” begins by crossing Neil Young & Crazy Horse with Wes Montgomery. Its lyrics reveal the cycle of addiction, recovery, relapse, and beginning again, the frustration and dangers and character flaws all expressed honestly and without artifice. Its angular guitar solo moves into a strange, lovely terrain, never leaving the soul of the tune behind.