Black Flag: In My Head

Black Flag: In My Head

1985

SST Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Paralyzed  2. The Crazy Girl  3. Black Love  4. White Hot  5. In My Head  6. Out of this World  7. I Can See You  8. Drinking and Driving  9. Retired at 21  10. Society's Tease  11. It's All Up to You  12. You Let Me Down


 Black Flag's third album of 1985, following "Loose Nut" (which I discussed yesterday) and the instrumental album "The Process of Weeding Out" which I've never heard (but has an incredible album cover...)



"In My Head" is Black Flag's final studio album, and it finds them almost fully embracing metal....It still  retains the jazz-punk sound they had been flirting with on the last couple albums,, but they do it with more heft and precision...

And the instrumentation sounds tight...The Rollins/Ginn/Kira/Bill Stevenson line-up was easily their most musical, and the sound is clean and easy on the ears...When compared to other Black Flag records at least...

The  lo-fi rumble and odd mixes are a thing of the past...Which I have mixed feelings about actually...It's great when the songs and the band click (like on the opener "Paralyzed" for instance), but lesser material like "The Crazy Girl" feels much lesser than before, because they don't have the exciting looseness it might have had if it appeared on "Slip It In' for example...It's a brave move and I do feel it  pays off more than it backfires....

Yea, it's not a perfect album, but it was cool Black Flag could get together one last time for a record, and we get another classic or two...I mean, this album has "Drinking and Driving" which actually has a good message worthy of a "One To Grow One" installment...(don't drink and drive!) which Henry delivers in a very entertaining manner...You can just picture his deadpan grin as he intones, "Drink...Drive...Kill..."

 The CD version also includes 3/4ths of the 1989 "I Can See You" e.p, which was their final studio release (until the Black Flag reunion album that comes out alter this year...I've only heard the one song from it and I wasn't nuts about it, but I'll reserve judgement until I hear the whole thing...).



(Woah, that can't be a Raymond Pettibon cover...I guess he stopped giving the band art to use after the band kept destroying the originals...To be totally honest, I think Raymond's visuals are a key component in Black Flag's appeal...

 You knew before you even heard any of the music that it was going to be kick-ass and dangerous...The brutal and witty album covers and the iconic "Bars" logo said all you needed to know...Would Black Flag be so well-remembered and beloved  today without all that imagery? It's a fair question...)

The "In My Head" CD drops "Kicking and Sticking," (which is fine by me....) and the song "I Can See You" is nothing great, but "Out of This World" is easily one of my fave Black Flag tracks! Henry sounds so laid back and demented...

"I'm out cold! And I'm Never Coming To..."

Damn, that kicks ass...Once I hear it I'm singing it all day...Hell, I'm listening to it as we speak...

And  I had to do a double-take when I first heard "You Let Me Down."  The normally shouting and accusatory Rollins sounds like Ward when he's disappointed in the Beav...

He's not angry so much as he's hurt...Not a great song or anything, but an unexpected and  hilarious finale to the Black Flag discography...
 
So let's celebrate that discography one last time, by checking out "Out of This World" by Black Flag...Enjoy...