How does one define Wolfmother? Well, if you were to raid your favourite underground music store and buy every single record they own of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Kyuss, AC/DC, The Doors, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd AND The Who, placed it into a blender and burnt the remnants onto a CD, you would have Wolfmother’s debut album (and quite likely, every subsequent album). But regardless of the fact that Wolfmother are almost a direct copy of all of these bands, they have still manages to carve out their own individual niche in the international rock music scene.
Wolfmother’s debut album spawned international acclaim and a record breaking 6 positions in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2005. In said countdown, Mind’s Eye reached number 6, the band’s highest position for that year. It was also the 3rd most popular Australian song for the year, which means that the Australian public voted this as the 3rd best homegrown song behind the likes of Bernard Fanning and Ben Lee. But we’ll forgive them for voting for Ben Lee. Regardless, this song’s popularity was very well deserved for the great song that it is.
The song itself is quite clearly influenced by the like of Led Zeppelin, The Doors and even features a keyboard solo that is quite influenced by The Who. But despite these influences, Andrew Stockdale’s direct guitar work and vocals give the song, and rock music in general, a sound that has not been heard for a long time. While I generally find Andrew Stockdale to be quite pretentious (in fact I have recently dubbed him Ben Lee, Jr.), I have to give him full credit for the musicianship he portrays in this song. The song is also complemented by a fantastic film clip which draws much inspiration from Pink Floyd’s Live In Pompeii, and can be seen here. Such beautiful mastery of the guitar and the soaring vocals that prove that Wolfmother are in fact a rock band that will live on for decades. Not only as a good band, but as an influential band that will have helped defined future musicians.
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This song can be described in one word; fun. This song is immense fun to listen to. What starts with distorted vocals turns into a fast moving rockabilly inspired jam that only scratches the surface of what these guys are capable of. This song reached position 16 than Mind’s Eye in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2005, proving that this song can also hold it’s own against other Wolfmother tracks and other international musicians (It’s quite noteworthy that this song was the 7th most popular Australian song and the 3rd wolfmother track in the top 20, behind Joker And The Thief at position 9. This also means that out of the top 9 Australian songs in the countdown, Wolfmother made up a 3rd). The only reason this song did not make my 100 is mainly because of the fact that Mind’s Eye was the first Wolmother song that I heard, and it therefore holds a special meaning for me.
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