Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

A tried-and-true rule of rock & roll: It's okay for an American band to sound British if at least one member hails from the U.K. In the case of Los Angeles trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, it's their drummer, Nick Jago, whose presence helps justify the band's hefty debt to '80s Brit-rockers such as the Jesus and Mary Chain and Love and Rockets. The band's debut album -- named, like the group itself, for Marlon Brando's biker gang in The Wild Ones -- adds a heavy bass groove to the swirly, psychedelic sound of the U.K. groups that inspired them. Dark, dizzying, and heavy with distortion, B.R.M.C. is the best '80s Brit-rock album since, well, the '80s. "Whatever Happened to My Rock & Roll" is a spacey, blues-rock romp, and "Rifles" coasts on drugged-out vocals and shimmering guitars.

Take Them On, On Your Own has fewer hooks, but at least BRMC is starting to sound like their own band. "Stop" declares its presence with a wet, sexy bass line -- the song's melodic anchor for Peter Hayes' droning guitar. Other numbers ("Six Barrel Shotgun") rev hard and fast, exactly like Detroit garage rock would sound to three California Anglophiles. On "Ha Ha High Babe," they indulge their psychedelic tendencies with an impenetrable tangle of noise that loops and loops and loops all the way out to space while Hayes pants, "You're ha ha high baby/You can't keep it on the ground." Original, it's not. But it still sounds awfully good while it's happening. (JENNY ELISCU)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide