The sixth Black Crowes record begins with "Midnight From the Inside Out," a feedback-riddled jam that never achieves liftoff. You fear that our neoclassic rock heroes have abandoned the boozy, supercharged verve of 1999's By Your Side and retreated into the listless psychedelia of 1994's Amorica. Hey, not so fast: "Lickin'" sports a lowdown groove, a leering vocal from the newly married Chris Robinson ("Now down there like a mule I'm kickin'/Girl, you gonna catch a lickin'") and a clipped riff from his bruh Rich. The Crowes know what their home strengths are. "Come On" suggests the Faces wanting to take you higher. But the heart of Lions lies in the best ballads the band has ever waxed, such as the Led Zeppelin III-esque "Soul Singing" and the churning "Losing My Mind." Can it be that the domesticity that ruined the band's role models is now giving the Black Crowes a new creative life? Can high-octane rock & roll and blissful valentines co-exist? Apparently so.

“He Will Break Your Heart”

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."