Description From Beale Street to Oblivion lacks the fire and passion heard on 2005's excessively excellent Robot Hive/Exodus. It's not that the Maryland-based band has betrayed the sound that made it famous or that it has suddenly become incapable of writing a memorable riff of having a go at a goFrom Beale Street to Oblivion lacks the fire and passion heard on 2005's excessively excellent Robot Hive/Exodus. It's not that the Maryland-based band has betrayed the sound that made it famous or that it has suddenly become incapable of writing a memorable riff of having a go at a good ol' rock 'n' blues stomp. Rather, it's that not much of anything awe-inspiring happens in the course of these 12 tunes. Listeners have to wait until the record's third track ("The Devil & Me") before the rockin' really sticks and from that point forward wade through several successive almost-great moments, feeling the stinging darts of disappointment as the album moves toward the dark and narrow sidewalks of Beale Street's end. Some of the tracks--namely "Electric Worry" and "Rapture of Riddley Walker" are impossibly pleasing but taken as a whole, this serves as a bummer set from one of the most promising and consistently imaginative acts. Certainly not a bad record for most bands but one that falls below the high expectations held for Clutch. --Jedd Beaudoin (Review copyright Amazon.co.uk)... (more)(less)
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