Warpaint | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by The Black Crowes | ||||
Released | March 3, 2008 | |||
Recorded | July 2007 at Allaire Studios, Shokan, New York | |||
Genre | Southern rock, blues rock, hard rock | |||
Length | 53:44 | |||
Label | Megaforce/Silver Arrow Records | |||
Producer | Paul Stacey | |||
The Black Crowes chronology | ||||
|
||||
Singles from Warpaint | ||||
|
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | (74/100) |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
The A.V. Club | B |
The Austin Chronicle | |
The Gazette | |
The Globe and Mail | |
Paste | |
Robert Christgau | |
Rolling Stone | |
Toronto Sun | |
Uncut |
Warpaint is the seventh studio album by American rock band The Black Crowes. Released on March 3, 2008, it was the band's seventh studio album and first studio album in almost seven years, and its first with new members Luther Dickinson and Adam MacDougall, as well as the first to be released on the band's own Silver Arrow Records label. Despite its predecessor selling more copies, Warpaint debuted 15 spots higher in the United States.
Following the departures of Marc Ford and Eddie Harsch in September 2006, The Black Crowes enlisted Paul Stacey and Rob Clores to handle lead guitar and keyboard duties, respectively. Adam MacDougall replaced Clores just before the Warpaint sessions began, and Paul Stacey returned to the producer’s chair with the hiring of Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars to play guitar. (Aside from a couple of appearances in September, Dickinson didn’t join the band on the road until the release of Warpaint, leaving Stacey to play the remainder of their concerts in 2007.)
Though the band had debuted new songs sporadically in concert since reforming in 2005, none of them were included on Warpaint, with only the intro of "Movin’ On Down the Line" having been performed for a live audience (as part of a jam in the middle of "Soul Singing"). It was a conscious decision to leave the road-tested songs behind; as Chris Robinson told Rolling Stone, "I wanted to show people where we are now."Rich Robinson wrote the music and would send CDs to Chris, who would add the lyrics and their melodies.
In July 2007, the band gathered at Allaire Studios in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York to record, finding that the remote setting contributed to the relative ease of recording.