Call it cute. Call it corny. You could even call it a Hallmark sentiment. But Black Crowes' singer Chris Robinson truly believes that love has changed his life and, quite possibly, helped his band make its best record in nearly a decade.
Last week, the Black Crowes released their sixth album, "Lions," which sounds as raw and vital as anything the band produced in the first few years of its career. Recorded mostly in live takes, it captures the ragged, retro blues-rock sound of an explosive band.
Robinson credits the energy to several sources: the support of the band's new label, V2; the Crowes' work with producer Don Was, and Robinson's joy in his five-month-old marriage to actress Kate Hudson.
Robinson and Hudson had met briefly on two occasions, but things happened quickly the third time. They reacquainted themselves at a Friday-night party in Manhattan, and took a walk through Central Park on Saturday. She moved into his loft on Sunday. Almost as quickly, Robinson dropped some of his more self-destructive habits, such as using cocaine and heroin.
Notorious for his dark outlook and cynicism about the record industry, Robinson's new spirit shows itself on "Lions" in unabashedly romantic ballads such as "Ozone Mama," "Soul Singing" and "Miracle to Me." Elsewhere, the band blends Parliament-like funk into its usual mix of Southern boogie and hard rock.
Robinson said that producer Was brought in the kind of spirit that the band needed after long sparring with money-hungry executives at Columbia Records, its former label.
"Of course, you're ambitious and you want your music to be popular and to be heard, but we're not adding a deejay or shaving our hair and wearing baggy pants to do it," he said. "Don Was was the first person we worked with who brought a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to our work and our project and our vision."
The pressure from a record company eager to see the Crowes repeat their multi-platinum sales was part of what made him unhappy enough to turn to drugs, Robinson says. He thought the band's success would bring the freedom to do what it wanted creatively, but instead it fueled higher financial expectations.
"We only wanted the freedom to express ourselves the way we were, and I always thought that's what success would bring you," he said.
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