The Black Lips Albums Ranked
The self-described “flower punk” band from Atlanta, the Black Lips, surely live up to that moniker. The live show antics of the group included acts like vomiting, urination, nudity, and more. But at their core, the Black Lips owe a lot to the pop rock of the 1960s, most obviously the Rolling Stones. Kept rolling by the core duo of Cole Alexander and Jared Swilley, the now-fivesome certainly produce a different kind of streamlined (and better) music than the group’s original raw releases. The Black Lips’ commercial and critical peak may have come about a decade ago, but their entire discography, made up of nine albums at the time of this writing, is worth attention.
EDIT 10/19/22: Added APOCALYPSE LOVE.
#10 — BLACK LIPS! (2003)
Favorite track: “Ain’t No Deal”
As much as I really believe the whole Black Lips discography is worthy of your ears, their self-titled debut, and a couple of their subsequent releases, are a lot less accessible. BLACK LIPS! gains some points from me for its cover art, referencing the 1915 film LES VAMPIRES, but otherwise, its raw noise rock/punk doesn’t keep me entirely engaged. “Ain’t No Deal” is the record’s best out-and-out song, with a melody and everything! BLACK LIPS! is an early and interesting artistic statement, a template for that flower punk that was improved immeasurably over the course of the decade.
#9 — WE DID NOT KNOW THE FOREST SPIRIT MADE THE FLOWERS GROW (2004)
Favorite track: “Ghetto Cross”
Another fun reference to film lies in the title of the Black Lips’ second album, WE DID NOT KNOW THE FOREST SPIRIT MADE THE FLOWERS GROW, a line from PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997). But like with BLACK LIPS!, the knowing nod gets points from me for an otherwise difficult album. The band’s songwriting abilities were marginally improved over their efforts for their debut, but the slipshod production and vocal/instrumental delivery honestly doesn’t hold my attention for long. “Ghetto Cross,” like “Ain’t No Deal” from the previous album, has the most hooks on WE DID NOT KNOW.
#8 — LET IT BLOOM (2005)
Favorite track: “Feeling Gay”
LET IT BLOOM is essentially the conclusion of the Black Lips’ original trilogy of loud, interesting, and hit-or-miss records, and it’s the best of the three. It lightens up a bit on aural ephemera and contains stronger, standalone tracks, like “Feeling Gay.” But as I said, it still feels part of an “amateur” beginning, the clearest delivery of whatever flower punk is (sorry, I don’t know if this is an actual term used consistently by the band, or, anyone, but I really, really like it) by the time of its release nevertheless.
#7— SATAN’S GRAFFITI OR GOD’S ART? (2017)
Favorite track: “It Won’t Be Long”
SATAN’S GRAFFITI OR GOD’S ART? feels somewhat like a return to the Black Lips’ beginnings, a rawer and more experimental record than anything they had put out in just about a decade. That’s great and all, but that also makes it the weakest product of their output in just about a decade. SATAN’S GRAFFITI, it should be added, is still much improved over the previous album on this list, LET IT BLOOM. Any given song is still catchier than anything from the “original trilogy,” such as “It Won’t Be Long.” There are just a lot more rambling, loose tracks than could be found on the rest of the Black Lips’ best albums; SATAN’S GRAFFITI isn’t all killer no filler.
#6 — GOOD BAD NOT EVIL (2007)
Favorite track: “O Katrina!”
The first studio album the Black Lips put out on Vice Records, GOOD BAD NOT EVIL was probably the band’s most significant, initial breakthrough. With late night talk show performances and play in film soundtracks, as was the case with the record’s best track “O Katrina!” in SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010), GOOD BAD NOT EVIL represented an overt shift in tone and intent from the band’s first three albums. And it resulted in a great batch of pop rock songs and a much more cohesive and fun record. It also marks the first album on this list, continued for the rest of this article, where it was truly difficult to pick a favorite track. I think that’s a pretty good place to be.
#5 — APOCALYPSE LOVE (2022)
Favorite track: “Among the Dunes”
Although they continue with the end-of-days theme in titles from SING IN A WORLD THAT’S FALLING APART to APOCALYPSE LOVE, the Black Lips deviate from the country focus of this album’s predecessor. But it’s not entirely gone, as the band weaves in and out of genres, tones, tempos, and what even sounds like production quality. The album contains jangling country-inflected tunes (“Tongue Tied”), plaintive pop rock (“Crying on a Plane”), and even tropical influences (“Sharing My Cream”). “Among the Dunes” is among the tracks that sound most like previous Black Lips work, and it’s the record’s best song, but the release’s most impressive quality is its ability to foster a consistently stellar vibe with an eclectic approach, varying from track to track as it does. APOCALYPSE LOVE, as the Black Lips’ tenth album, is exciting proof that the band has evolved in great style.
#4–200 MILLION THOUSAND (2009)
Favorite track: “Drugs”
As the follow up to GOOD BAD NOT EVIL, 200 MILLION THOUSAND increased the extent of the Black Lips’ poppy sound. Even though it may end up with fewer standout tracks, there’s something about the band’s clear commitment to an offbeat but enjoyable experience that feels elevated and more consistent on 200 MILLION THOUSAND. “Drugs,” “Starting Over,” and “Elijah” still stand as some of the group’s best songs regardless! This, too, is where the Rolling Stones influence started to become more obvious.
#3 — SING IN A WORLD THAT’S FALLING APART (2020)
Favorite track: “Rumbler”
The Black Lips’ ninth and most recent album is the impetus for this piece, and it’s perhaps their most unique, at least between the group’s own records. SING IN A WORLD THAT’S FALLING APART is a riff on country music by way of the Black Lips’ lo-fi garage rock sound and clear Rolling Stones love. I think the term “concept album” may be used too liberally, but SING IN A WORLD establishes a clear aesthetic with its first track and adheres to it while vacillating between honky-tonk and crooning ballads. It’s a surprising deviation, but a successful one.
#2 — UNDERNEATH THE RAINBOW (2014)
Favorite track: “Funny”
UNDERNEATH THE RAINBOW was my first “new” album with the Black Lips, having caught up to their work with ARABIA MOUNTAIN as a starting point. That album, likely the band’s most successful critically, represented a relatively low but still significant charting commercial success. And it deserved it, as the Black Lips’ entire ethos began its “baroque” period. As has been described in film genre scholarship, the baroque period of a genre, and in this case a body of artistic work, becomes a bit more knowing, playing with expectations set by previous installments. UNDERNEATH THE RAINBOW is a tight, 33-minute album that is all killer no filler, short bops with just the right dose of raw energy and bizarre lyrics. UNDERNEATH THE RAINBOW is an apt title, as the record blares like a warped offshoot of the pop rock of the early 2000s that the Black Lips were initially trying to undercut, but at too wide a margin. Picking a favorite from the record was tough, but “Funny” is one of the band’s best, and a great introduction to their sound.
#1 — ARABIA MOUNTAIN (2011)
Favorite track: “Spidey’s Curse”
I don’t think I’m coming out of left field by naming ARABIA MOUNTAIN the best Black Lips album. While a little lengthier at 41 minutes and 16 tracks than UNDERNEATH THE RAINBOW’s 33 and 12, ARABIA MOUNTAIN’s run time never lags because of the songs’ brevity and variety. The first four tracks on the record play like the beginning of a greatest hits album, and that becomes the case with every other song on the album from there. ARABIA MOUNTAIN is vibrant, catchy, and weird, refining the Black Lips’ inherent rawness and intentionally off-putting sensibilities into consumable, but not mass-marketable or cheap, rock music. As would be implied with being number one on this list, this is the starting place if you want to experience the flower punk of the Black Lips. But it doesn’t get much better than this.
