Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg (Island Records)

The difficult second album is a hard premise considering the process is often rushed and the expectations are high. Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale initially found himself in an enviable position after the success of the band's debut self-titled effort only to loose two thirds of the group and have a huge weight placed upon his shoulders. Stockdale had to become Wolfmother fast in the same way that Robert Smith is pretty much considered The Cure.

After much toil the result is the second album, Cosmic Egg, named after a favored yoga pose. With such a ludicrous name you could almost see the critics sharpening their knives and coming up with puns like: rotten egg, bad egg, scrambled eggs, etc. In reality, this sort of criticism is not completely unjustified as the band of new recruits plus Stockdale deliver derivative, meat and three veg rock across twelve tracks. The fat is also left on this effort because while it clocks in at 53:40, some of the songs really do overstay their welcome.

'California Queen' is still heavy on the Black Sabbath riffs synonymous with their earlier works. It also sets the stage for an album where the major difference is that the guitars seem heavier and the volume is cranked up to eleven. Unsurprisingly, single, 'New Moon Rising' has the same screams, blatantly ripped off of Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and is not even close to equalling the Wolfie's biggest hit, 'Woman'.

Although 'Sundial' packs a rock punch, it sounds like it is trying too hard to be a Hendrix track while the middle of 'In The Morning' just seems to rip off the band's own, 'White Unicorn'. The lyrics aren't much better with talk of lame, dancing feet and the profound "everybody's got a story" (great, thanks for that insight, Monsieur Stockdale!)

Cosmic Egg is a hungry beast full of heavy machinery. At times this works (especially for the people who love their music served dirty and frantic) but for the most part it seems like an unsurprising, overblown and tedious effort you'd leave secreted away in a garage and only occasionally take out for a spin because you had to fill in an hour on an endless road trip. If you want to be sated, enjoy a bland, cosmic boiled egg but be warned that afterward you may want something a tad more fulfilling.

Rating: 2/5

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Artist: Wolfmother Title: Wolfmother Released: 02/05/2006 Buy Now \| View Details	Artist: Wolfmother Title: Cosmic Egg Released: 26/10/2009 Buy Now \| View Details

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