BUCKCHERRY: Vol. 10

For all of the exotic dancers out there who are looking for a brand new jam to boost over the sound system before you take the stage:  Buckcherry is back, and they're still hawking the same three-chord-strip-club riffs that first landed them on the charts more than 20 years ago.  Yes, it's been 24 years since their unabashed cocaine love song Lit Up hit rock radio.  Unfortunately, to hear their new album Warpaint, it's clear that the band hasn't noticed that passage of time, either.

Buckcherry is an interesting study in hard rock purism.  This is a band that might be selling out arenas if Nirvana had never arrived to drop the guillotine on hair metal.  They're a pretty strong live act, one that approaches every show like it's midnight at the Viper Room.  Unfortunately, here in 2023, Vol. 10 is unlikely to win over any new fans outside of the diehards still haunting the Sunset Strip.    

Because just like their heroes in AC/DC, Buckcherry has stubbornly refused to mix up their sound over their years, save for but the tiniest variations in production.  But whereas AC/DC is at the very least capable of wit and wordplay, Buckcherry have always been far too obvious, with no poetry in their cheese.  "I wanna have a good time..." sings frontman Josh Todd on opening track Good Time.  “Make it last all night and get so high.” These are single entendre lyrics without a trace of wordplay.

And look, there's absolutely nothing wrong with fast dirty rock and roll about chasing girls and living for the weekend.  But Todd's lyrics are, as usual, a bit too on the nose to comfortably shout along with.  Brian Johnson famously sang "She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean."  The Buckcherry version probably would have gone:  "She looked great naked."  Perhaps if the lyrics were as dynamic as some of the riffs, Vol. 10 wouldn't feel so dated and samey.

Because the truth is, Buckcherry has always been on the cusp of making great music.  Their unlikely 2006 smash Crazy Bitch is so undeniably joyful and catchy that you almost forget how tacky it is.  Ditto the song Sorry, which became a big pop radio crossover, even with its awful junior-high-romance lyricism.  And their 1999 debut album is still an absolute gem; that was back when Todd's songwriting leaned more into the abstract than the straightforward smut. 

It's hard to think of a band more persistently clinging to the tattoos-and-ripped-jeans sound in 2023, especially with AC/DC and Motley Crue both semi-retired. And Buckcherry has some real bangers in their catalog, especially if you're four whiskeys deep. Unfortunately, to get all the way through Vol. 10, you might need to order a fifth. C-