Black Lungs is the pseudonym adopted by Wade MacNeil, the guitarist from cult Canadian hardcore band Alexisonfire, for this debut solo album which sees him leave behind that band’s raw aggression in favour of something more introspective and personal.
The album begins ominously as MacNeil – his voice drenched in reverb and sounding worryingly like the singer is auditioning for one of those square-jawed soft-rock bands from the mid-90s who managed to make Suede sound decent (think Bush, Stiltskin, Crash Test Dummies etc) – drones repeatedly that “We’re getting closer to Babylon”. The embarrassingly juvenile angst of second track ‘Fire and Brimstone’ (“Will you let me go to hell however I choose?”) isn’t much better and only compounds a terrible start which is almost enough to have you reaching for the ‘stop’ button.
From track three, ‘When It’s Blackout’, onwards however, we may as well be listening to a different album as the quality increases dramatically. With its heartfelt vocals and fist-in-the-air chorus, album standout ‘For Her’ shows that MacNeil is at his best when he keeps it melodically simple and lyrically honest. Driven by uplifting piano lines and buzzing guitars, ‘For Her’ and songs like ‘Hold Fast’ and ‘So It Goes’ build up freewheeling pace and singalong quality which resembles The Hold Steady at their most anthemic.
Elsewhere, as in closing track ‘In Memory’ which tells the story of a man’s futile battle against cancer, the lyrics return to the dark subject matter of the first two songs, but McNeil resists the urge to use the same over-the-top vocal effects and instrumentation, and sounds genuinely raw and emotional, rather than precious.
‘In Memory’ and the six songs which precede it, are so superior to the turgid angst of those first two tracks that you wonder why he bothered to include them at all. It’s a real shame that the opening is so poor, because if you just cringe and bear it, you’ll be rewarded with an energetic and heartfelt little gem of an album which delivers far more than it initially promises.