very two months, a group of British music journalists converge just outside of Liverpool to listen to all of the debut records to be released within the next month or so and select one to be the object of constant praise from England’s various music media sources. Within the last year, the Strokes, White Stripes, Hives and Andrew WK have all been the focus of discussion. Currently the NME, Q, and MOJO (along with Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher) are behind a Jesus and Mary Chain influenced California trio by the name of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, whose 2001 stateside debut was recently released across the pond.

Their self-titled debut opens with “Love Burns” which features simple garage revival drumming paired with My Bloody Valentine-esque guitar tones and bleak lyrics. “Red Eyes and Tears” follows the same formula. The lead single “Whatever Happened to my Rock n’ Roll? (punk song)” is a roaring homage to Detroit garage. The problem is that the album stagnates in the middle, with a group of tracks that’ll make you want to turn off Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and put in Psychocandy. BRMC seem to be more than willing to just be a redux of British bands past, as opposed to something original and worthwhile. Instead of being their own band in a specific genre or creating a new one, they seem to go the extra mile to duplicate the sounds of bands that, in the past, have been successful.

If you decide to stick with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, you get “White Palms” during which Peter Hayes sings “Jesus never coming back/Jesus won’t take me back/Jesus never coming home/Jesus I dare you to come back” before telling us “I wouldn’t have come back if I’d have been Jesus/I’m the kind of guy who leaves the scene of the crime.” “As Sure as the Sun” follows that track, which likely would’ve worked better as the closer than as the sixth track of the album. The band explores bloody death on “Rifles”, the darkest track on the album before looking up and finishing the album on a much happier note, with “Too Real”, “Spread Your Love”, and “Head Up High”.

Much like fellow shoegaze revivalists Spiritualized, religion is a common subject, especially on tracks like “White Palms” and the uplifting closer “Salvation”, featuring lines like “So Jesus left you lonely/Feels like nothings really holy/Falling, everything is falling.” Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s debut record is the talk of Britain, and although it contains plenty of fine tracks, seems uninspired, and certainly unworthy of the amount of hype being given to them, or at least until Liverpool is invaded again, and this San Francisco outfit can fade out on a high note, never to be remembered again, much like their debut record.