Chili Cold Blood

Chili Cold Blood

Lips (Bloodchili)

If only every rock song were as gritty and raw as "Black Ass Woman." Sadly, the occasional Texas funk slips in, and while wincefully nostalgic, we miss Chili Cold Blood's gutbucket blues. Lips, CCB's fifth LP, takes the local trio's stomp, subtracts the trashcan mic and kitchen recording, and adds in sway and thump. It looks good on paper, but the first half of Lips lacks the drawl and dirt of their previous efforts. Opener "Bush to Be In" – yessir – is Cold Blood in spirit but lackluster in drive. Ditto for followers "See That Woman" and the wah-wah-rific "Juicy Pink." Yet with "Black Ass," Doug Strahan brings it all back home. "Don't Come Home Soon" is creepy in a good way, and closer "Flawed MF" is run through "Stranglehold." We love that CCB mixes new tastes into its pie, but funk brought down Texas, and now it split Lips.