The best rock 'n' roll album since "Brothers"

It's been said now for quite some time that "rock is dead." And as far as the charts are concerned, it's true. But I did stumble upon this gem via the very underrated streaming service Deezer: Just Business by a band out of Mississippi called Bass Drum of Death. It's easily the best rock 'n' roll record I've set ears on since Brothers by The Black Keys.

Now granted, I'm a bit late to the game here: Just Business was released in July 2018. But since I stumbled upon it in Deezer's "new" rock releases section, I'm going to review it like it just came out.

Like The Black Keys and The White Stripes before them, Bass Drum of Death is a two-piece band...or maybe it's a three-piece – it's tough to tell given their sparse online presence. What's not in question is that creatively, it's a one-man show led by principal songwriter/guitar player/singer John Barrett. Much like Dan Auerbach and Jack White, Barrett is the Michael Jordan of this unit. Everyone else is John Paxson.

But that's where the comparisons to the other two-man units end. On Just Business, Barrett combines the best of 90s fuzzy hook-laden grunge with the echoey garage-ethos of 2011 hipster rock – all while sounding totally of this day and age. This is not retread rock targeted towards whiners who pine in vain for yesteryear (Greta Van Fleet fans, this means you).

The album is eminently catchy from start to finish, so that's as good a reason as any to recommend it. There are also 3 tracks on here that, had this album been released in 1996, the videos would be in heavy MTV-rotation all gotdamn year:

• Too High

• I Don't Wanna Know

• Just Business

So 21 months after its release, why didn't this album make a dent? I fully realize that proclaiming music as good (or bad) is completely subjective. My aural treasure might be another listener's trash. But the 3 songs I cited are loaded with great, memorable riffs and choruses. And they're legitimately catchy – not that manufactured kind where you can tell the songwriters are trying really too hard to polish a turd.

My hope is that years down the road, Just Business will make a ripple, not that that's of any use to John Barrett and company in the here and now. But I'm still Glass-Is-Half-Full when it comes to rock 'n' roll. It's not so much that it's dead, it's just that it's been driven underground while country, hip-hop, and electronic music continue to rule the playlists. And while some get dismayed by that, I think it's great in the long run.

For anything to be truly cool, it has to be perceived as underground, organic, fresh, and a bit exclusive. Once it becomes mainstream and commoditized, it might remain lucrative and popular for a while, but its edge and hipness have gone flying out the window. It‘s the difference between actual cinnamon and fake-cinnamon taste derived from artificial and “natural” flavors. People want the real s#%*. They want Pearl Jam, not Creed.

So I have great hope for rock 'n' roll. It's in exile right now. But when it comes back, it'll take us by storm because it came out of left field when no one was expecting it. It‘ll be authentic, not manufactured to appeal to algorithms. And then its inevitable march towards commodification and lameness will renew all over again.

Until then, like in this interminable quarantine world we live in, all we can do is be patient and hopeful. And enjoy the hell out of glimpses of what’s coming like Just Business.