Review by Bran­don Sideleau

As many of you know, Flip­per are one of the most influ­en­tial bands of the past 30 years, gar­ner­ing praise and credit from Nir­vana (whose bassist, Krist Novoselic, plays on this album), the Melvins, and vir­tu­ally every band play­ing within the doom, stoner and sludge metal gen­res. And yet, despite this enor­mous influ­ence, the band itself has existed in a state of rel­a­tive obscu­rity through­out the past 30+ years. This, along with a tumul­tuous his­tory of band mem­ber deaths (the most dam­ag­ing being the death of bassist and co-vocalist Will Shat­ter in 1987), leaves one in sheer amaze­ment that the band has even sur­vived at all — let alone release new recordings.

Flipper’s last offi­cial stu­dio album was 1993’s Rick Rubin-produced Amer­i­can Grafishy — an unfor­tu­nately little-heard, but admit­tedly strong entry into Flipper’s discog­ra­phy (although nowhere near approach­ing the great­ness of their pre­vi­ous albums, Generic and Gone Fishin’.) Now, after what seems like (for me, at least) years of antic­i­pa­tion, the band has returned with a new stu­dio album enti­tled Love.

Over the past four years or so I have had the plea­sure of being able to watch Flip­per play in all of their live glory mul­ti­ple times and, after view­ing clas­sic Flip­per videos from the early 1980s, I can hon­estly say that the band is cur­rently at their tight­est and vis­ceral career best (a rar­ity for bands of their age). This energy, com­bined with the clas­sic “Flip­per” sound that these guys could play in their sleep, shines through on this won­der­ful record. The band explores both the more speedy deliv­ery of old songs like “Get Away” on new tracks like “Night Falls” and “Learn to Live,” and also the sludgy dirge of “Sac­ri­fice” on tracks like “Only One Answer” and “Why Can’t You See.” They also revisit ter­ri­tory sim­i­lar to “Life Is Cheap” on the fan­tas­tic closer “Old Graves.”

From what I’m say­ing, it sounds like this album is one big trip down mem­ory lane, but it isn’t, due mainly to the fact that there really is no one else out there (now or before) that sounds quite like Flip­per. Also, it’s thanks to the amaz­ing Bruce Loose, who is much more aggres­sive and fiery with his vocals this time around. Krist Novoselic’s bass play­ing also adds a won­der­ful dimen­sion to the record and, quite hon­estly, sounds the clos­est to Will Shat­ter I have ever heard from the band. When you hear the bass open­ing to “Night Falls” you will instantly feel like you’re hear­ing the same bassist who blasted through the open­ing of “In Life My Friends” from Gone Fishin’. Finally, there is Jack Endino (the famous pro­ducer behind Nirvana’s Bleach), whose pro­duc­tion is, quite frankly, per­fect for a Flip­per album. The bass pops just the way it should, the gui­tars sound dis­torted as all hell, Steve’s drums sound strong, and Bruce’s vocals tear through it all with beau­ti­ful anguish.

If you need to get one Flip­per album, get Generic — but this new album is a close sec­ond, tied with Gone Fishin’. A wel­come and sur­pris­ing come­back from one of punk rock’s most ground­break­ing bands.