Beat the Devil’s Tattoo by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Beat the Devil's Tattoo, the sixth studio album from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, came out in March 2010, the second record on the San Francisco trio's own Abstract Dragon imprint, working with Vagrant Records and Cooperative Music Group. It was also the first album with drummer Leah Shapiro, who had taken over the stool from founding member Nick Jago in 2008, lined up behind Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been.

The change shows. Shapiro hits like she's nailing the lid on something, and the band leans all the way into its swampy blues-rock side, garage guitars caked in grime and the vocals drawled low and menacing. The title track sets the tone, a stomping sermon from the wrong side of the tracks, and the rest of the record rarely climbs out of the shadows. More than a decade into their run, they sound like a band that has found its own dirt road and means to stay on it.

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