Lions by Black Crowes

Lions, the Black Crowes' sixth studio album, came out in May 2001 as their first for V2 after they left Columbia, and it's the only one with Audley Freed on guitar. Don Was produced it in New York City that January and February, and with bassist Greg Rzab gone and not yet replaced, Was and Rich Robinson covered the bass between them. Chris Robinson, Steve Gorman and Eddie Harsch round out the Atlanta crew.

The sound is thick and swaggering, and even lukewarm reviewers praised it; the grumbles were about songs that didn't stick, and the harshest critics heard a knock-off of Led Zeppelin. "Soul Singing" makes the best case against them, all gospel lift and strut. The band hit the road hard behind it, including a co-headlining North American run with Oasis, then went quiet until 2005.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.