Review: Bones Owens ‘Love Out of Lemons’
By Hal Horowitz
It’s always encouraging when a plugged-in rocker takes their music on the road to deliver it in an acoustic, solo format. It means those songs can stand on their own, without the support of a band or studio production. Rocking singer/songwriter Bones Owens did that, and more, this past spring.
He loaded his motorcycle with an acoustic guitar and headed out to play cuts from 2023s quieter, gentler EP Eighteen Wheeler and his confident 2021 full-length debut with six strings and a clutch of solid selections. He also previewed some of Love Out of Lemons (released July 12). While his albums embrace a full electric sound, crisply recorded in a professional environment, Owens’ music and vocals don’t need extra oomph to register.
Regardless, these eleven offerings benefit from a bolstered, rollicking attack where Bones (Caleb to his mom) cranks up the riffs, unleashing pure, ruggedly unpretentious bluesy gems that connect on the first spin.
From the Zeppelin thump of the opening title track (a kiss-off to an old flame singing “With the checks your mouth is writing/Do you think they’re gonna cash?”) and especially the sizzling “Going Back to Where I Came From” (Jimmy Page couldn’t have done better), to the Bad Company crawl of “Sinking Like a Stone” Owens delivers tight, taut and tough keepers you’ll be humming after one listen. Only two entries, including the melodic slower ballad “Higher Than I Wanna Be,” break the four minute mark.
The propulsive glam swamp bluster of “Born Again,” (describing unhappy people, poor and rich, who’d like another chance at life), highlights the guitarist/songwriter’s lyrical talents along with his compositional ones.
Producer/multi-instrumentalist Paul Moak and Owens create all the music except for drums. That keeps the approach gutsy and uncluttered, spotlighting the guitar dominated program. Influences ranging from the White Stripes, to the Black Keys and T. Rex (he entitles one tune “Get It On,” albeit omitting the “Bang a Gong” prefix), provide a map to Owens’ primary sources. There are no acoustic performances here.
Since this appears in the middle of the year, titling the prog-inflected, multiple-overdubbed, slow-burning “Summer Skin” might yield some advantage for airplay in the July/August months. Additional UK-influenced musical themes appear in the Oasis-styled “Sinking Like a Stone.” The mood even gets soulful on “Don’t Hold Out On Me.” But when he hits a plucky rocking groove on “Born Again,” the AC/DC grind of “For Keeps,” or the Free-infused “Devil Gonna Getcha” with its grungy Paul Kossoff power chords, it’s clear where Owens’ roots lie.
With no duff moments, he packs a lot of wallop in 35 minutes. It’s just enough time to punch out a scorching batch of memorable licks without letting any single track unnecessarily spiral into an extended “Kashmir”-type epic. Love Out of Lemons might be this year’s top entry into the perfect summer album sweepstakes.
Pre-order Love Out Of Lemons Here
“Love Out Of Lemons”
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