The Black Lillies Emerge Triumphant from Turmoil

The past few years have been ones of rebuilding and rediscovery for the Black Lillies and leader Cruz Contreras. In the months following the 2015 release of Hard to Please, the excrement hit the proverbial fan and Contreras found his band without most of its gear after a robbery. Then the band’s structure changed with the departure of two longtime bandmates and after a revolving door of additions and exoduses, the Black Lillies transformed from a six-piece act to a quartet.

Stranger to Me is the first Black Lillies album since Hard to Please. While some of the 13 tracks may be classified as a return to form, the album largely plays as the sound of a band finding a new form. It’s a shape that could best be described as a mix of WIlco-inspired indie rock sensibility with Neil Young and Crazy Horse circa Ragged Glory except not quite so, well, ragged.

Whether rocker, mid-tempo, or ballad, the songs on Stranger to Me are well-crafted and sturdy in construct. The tunes are hard-hitting and direct. Never before have the Black Lillies sounded so focused in approach or muscular as a unit.

The opening few tracks set the tone. First up is “Ten Years,” a thick slab of countrified heartland rock. It leads nicely into “Midnight Stranger,” a true highlight on the album. Contreras delivers his best croon over a hot little garage-blues lick. It moves, not in the Americana/country vein of earlier Black Lillies releases, but in the way a road-tested blues-rock outfit can let one rip.

“Weighting” squarely hits that aforementioned Neil Young reference. It’s anchored by a grungy riff and distorted solo that has echoes of Neil’s “Country Home,” but unlike that song, “Weighting” doesn’t meander for 7-plus minutes. It maintains its grit throughout, sounding loose without losing focus.

The less rocking fare on Stranger to Me is similarly focused. “Don’t be Afraid,” lyrically, fits in with past Black Lillies ballads. This time around Bowman Townsend provides a hard, rhythmic anchor and Dustin Schaefer provides a soaring solo that keeps things moving and lively.

Townsend also helps to propel “Joy and Misery.” Underneath a nice little piano melody and acoustic-electric guitar textures and interplay, Townsend is there with a subtle, swinging beat that takes a softer song and makes it a bit of a toe-tapper.

For those looking for songs that find the Black Lillies roaming more familiar terrain, there’s “Earthquake” and “Someday, Sometime.” These sparse, acoustic-based tracks could fit right in or serve as logical progressions upon themes explored on 2013’s Runaway Freeway Blues or 2011’s 100 Miles of Wreckage. While neither really brings something new to the table, they don’t sound like retreads either, and within the context of the entire album, they serve to bridge together the different soundscapes and styles Contreras and the band have merged into the current incarnation of the Black Lillies.

“No Other Way” and “Ice Museum” are where those new stylistic flourishes converge. They’re sleek and modern, merging the group’s trademark blues and honky-tonk with a 2000s alt-country/indie rock sheen that provides a new energy and buoyancy unheard on prior Black Lillies releases.

That makes sense, considering Contreras’ recent remarks to Skip Anderson in a profile for No Depression. Contreras said, “There’s a lightness to what we’re doing, and that lightness comes from being in a band that’s writing very good songs.”

The statement is a mixture of Contreras’ confidence and comfort with where he and his band are at right now. It comes across in Stranger to Me, making it arguably the Black Lillies’ deepest and most satisfying listening experience to date.