Unnatural Helpers- Cracked Love & Other Drugs

Unnatural Helpers - Cracked Love & Other Drugs

Unnatural Helpers are muscular garage rock in full. Sometimes their boldness produces really raw, energetic songs, and sometimes it just feels flat and bland. UH are a Seattle band, so you know they’ve been influenced by the garage scene that Seattle is famous for. Heavy guitars and pounding percussion plow through the speakers, while Dean Whitmore talk-sings-shouts his way in a band that comes off (possibly intentionally), like they’re just waking up and throwing shit together. Again, it can lead to a couple hits and a few misses.

Cracked Love & Other Drugs features fifteen songs, yet it clocks in just under twenty-six minutes, so there’s a lot of one and a half minute burners. The riffs run a little too close together with their heavy, choppy patterns, so there’s not a lot of differentiation between songs. Something like “Brainstroke” can sum up a handful of other songs, with unpaved guitar jams and shouting from Whitmore. At the heart of the problem with this album is that, despite its weighty nature, it’s still a pop record. That being the case, there are few melodies or hooks for this album to lay claim to. “Our Most Entitled” finds a solid hook while using a similar “Brainstroke” formula; the difference is subtle but “Our Most Entitled” becomes an enjoyable jam. “I Claim it Mine” is a legitimately awesome song. It’s a shame it rests in the middle of all this mediocrity, but “I Claim it Mine” sounds like it could have been a seminal song for a band in the 80′s, 90′s, 00′s, or now. It just has a classic feel to it. It’s heavy, like usual, but the attitude and melody click so perfectly together. Then, it’s right back to meandering garage rock with “She Was Your Girlfriend”. Whitmore is a veteran performer, so this is who Unnatural Helpers will be, as opposed to a young band evolving their chops. What we’re left with is a throwaway album with one inexplicably awesome song. If there’s a way you can listen to “I Claim it Mine” and skip everything else, that would be ideal.