Natural Child – 1971 – Styrofoam Drone

I wonder if they wanted to release the album on 4/20 on purpose? Something inside tells me that’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. This is the debut full length from NATURAL CHILD, and it follows along perfectly with their motto, “Let the good times roll.”

For any of you who remember when we covered Natural Child’s “White Man’s Burden” 7″, this new album follows along in a similar path. It sticks to the rowdy and equally bluesy/ country-esque vibes, all with a filthy punk attitude while overflowing with heart and soul. Spanning from getting totally fucked up, pretty women, and legitimately earning a living, Natural Child sing from a working middle-class perspective at times, which in turn illustrates just how much these dudes love weed and having a good time when work is over. The album is a solid thirty-three minutes of vintage sounding blues inflected garage-punk, with tinges of psych here and there and even some acoustic action (“Woman C’mon”), and there doesn’t seem to be another band so awesomely capturing this sound at the moment.

Opener “Easy Street” an anthemic statement indeed, with lyrics about smoking rocks, punching cops, and anything else you would consider totally absurd. Right away this sets the tone for the rest of the rowdy album that follows, with high-voltage guitar licks and all kinds of palpable energy. “Hard Workin’ Man” follows and could be considered the single of this record. The scum covered guitars are grimy and sludgy, allowing for psyched out flares within the immense build-up that takes place. It’s fiery and deep-cutting all at the same time, and shows a bit of that working class perspective.

A bit later comes “Chris’ Blues”, which is a quick and rowdy blues rock blazer and you can feel it bursting with absolutely ecstatic vibes. There’s no way you can frown with this one playing. It wouldn’t be a surprise if you left this one on repeat for a few listens. Following that up is “Yoko”, which is easily a story about John Lennon and Yoko Ono – “She makes all my friends think I’m gay, but I’m not so that’s okay.” It’s got a moody dirge vibe that creeps along with obscurity for awhile before popping off into electrified mine-field of guitar soloing.

Next up is “Let it Bleed”, which is driven by a delightfully sunny guitar hook and a springy bass line. The yearning and vivid lyrics definitely paint a picture – “What do you do when your love’s almost dead? Let it bleed. What do I do with this blood in my bed? Let it bleed.” This one proves that this trio cares about something other than getting totally fucked up, and it’s shown through their ability to be genuine. The funny part is that they’re also being genuine when they sing about drugs and getting fucked up! “White People” is drenched in reverb stricken guitar twangs, while “Natural Blues” is kind of like their mission statement as a band. Clearly these Nashville dudes love weed. This one might include one of the sickest solos on the record, but really that decision is up to you.

“Yer Birthday” has the most obvious country vibe of anything up til this point, with sliding guitars and apathetic vocals about getting older and drinking. This paves the way for the final track “Beer”, which features an unexpected applause sound effect, but it works! This is a calm and laid-back way to wrap things up, which works perfectly because that’s the way you’re supposed to enjoy an ice cold beer. It gets even better when the applause comes back whenever the boys sing “Gonna drink some beer” or “Gonna smoke some weed”, which is kind of hilarious because they don’t let us forget their love for these things for even a second throughout the entire album. Now go pre-order this wax from Infinity Cat, because it comes with a free dime-bag.

My Rating: 8.3/10
Genre/ Tags: Blues Rock, Alt-Country, Punk, Psychedelic
1971: Tracklist:
1.) Easy Street
2.) Hard Workin’ Man
3.) Women C’mon
4.) Makin’ It
5.) Chris’ Blues
6.) Yoko
7.) Let it Bleed
8.) White People
9.) Natural Blues
10.) Yer Birthday
11.) Beer

PRE-ORDER the LP directly from Infinity Cat right now – comes with some free shit !
Natural Child on Blogspot
Natural Child – White Man’s Burden 7″ previously posted on the Drone
Natural Child – Split 7″ (w/ Strange Boys) previously posted on the Drone