To be completely honest with you I could not honestly say that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was the band I listened to most last year. They wouldn't even make 50th. For fuck's sake, I probably listened to Britney Spears more this year than I have listened to B.R.M.C. In fact, I only bought the album because there was a buzz about them and they were cool and it was cool to like them. But now I see why. It's because they are really cool.

They're the kind of band you'd expect to turn up on the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie and everyone would go. 'oh yeah, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club  they're cool', and everyone would pretend they'd known about them for ages, when in reality (a foreign concept to David Lynch) everyone would be frantically heading for the nearest record store so they could but the album so they could pretend they'd had it for ages and were cool. And then they'd be cool. Because they are cool.

And then they'd put the album on and even though they'd never heard it before, it would still sound familiar. As familiar as an old pair of jeans and a leather jacket. Which is what they're wearing on the album cover. They're even wearing black jeans, which are so unfashionable they're cool.

You know what  B.R.M.C. is actually similar to the Doves's The Last Broadcast, but heavier. The whole thing is an aural assault on all your senses. The guitars are huge and the engineers have spared no reverb. The drums and bass plonk along like small steam trains. The melodies swirl, and it's really original and fresh and awesome with more atmosphere then the greenhouse effect. But if Doves are doves, then Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are crows. They soar. They swoop. They sit there in the corner being dark mutherfuckers and they give you the eye and you know you don't want to fuck with them. They're like the really really cool dark (demeanor not skin) kid in school that only exists in Hollywood movies.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are the band that the weird chick with the black hair in the movie The Breakfast Club listens to. Only they don't get pretty in the end and pash the jock.

But it's hard to say just what they're like.

Perhaps Porno for Pyros. Perhaps The Stooges. Perhaps Led Zeppelin with Beatles melodies, but not really. The bass is really prominent and stands out proud. The vocals are good, really good. The guitars swirl around like we're not in Kansas anymore Toto, and the drums are so well placed. Each song on the album is brilliant. There isn't a track you'd skip over. It's an album full of great songs and as a bunch of songs they make a great album.

Perhaps they are just original. Perhaps they are just cool. Whatever they are, this is/was the best album of 2002. I think I'm addicted to it now.