"By Your Side" offers a middle-ground between the meat-and-bones blues and rock 'n roll of their first two albums and the sophisticated songwriting and rhythms of "Amorica." Thus, no matter which album is your favorite of the Crowes, chances are, you will enjoy this album. There is even a good helping of the psychedelic rock from "Three Snakes and One Charm" left over.

Again, the Black Crowes go further to prove they are much more than a simple retro band. Bands like the Rolling Stones and the Faces are definitely huge influences, but has either band ever offered up such funky grooves, or rocked with such soul and energy, as the Crowes do on songs like the musicially inspiring "Virtue and Vice," the groove-filled "Then She Said My Name," or the angry "HorseHead"? And could a simple retro band ever shake things up enough to write with the creativity displayed on the melodic and dreamy "Welcome to the Goodtimes" and the pure funk of "Heavy"? Don't kid yourselves: the Crowes have been forging *new* grounds that *comes* from 70s rock. They have taken this blues rock, merged it with gospel, psychedelia, soul, funk, mashed the layers together, and combined it with class A musicianship to create a sound like no other. On "By Your Side," we see the Crowes pass out of an experimental, but very musically successful stage and begin to embark upon a more mature sound.

I'm not a long time diehard crowes fan. So I'll save you the overly analytical, tooth comb review. Basically if they had more CD's as consistant and well crafted as this one I would be that long time, diehard fan. Over the years they always had some great songs but I never found a disc that I liked the whole enough to buy. This is the best American rock album I've heard in so long I almost forgot there was real rock n roll bands left anymore. Chris Robinson's melodies are very focused and musical and the guitars and rhythm section are all meat. I read some of the reviews saying they missed the more loose, jammy feel from previous CD's. I personally don't think the Crowes do that too well (leave that to the Allman's and Carlos). I love that this CD is one strong "song" after another and they all are to the point without any unecessary fluf. The backup vocals in the gospel, R&B style give great counterpoint melodies to Chris's lead vocal. Maybe all that matters is like the title of my review says. It hasn't left my CD changer since I first put it in. When "Horsehead" starts your yugo turns into a GTO!! It melts blaring, stoplight hiphop at 20 yards baby! If your sick of buying remastered 70's favorites because there ain't much happening in rock right now, check out this CD and it will renew your faith that there's life after Bonham, Jones and Bolin ceased to be.

P.S I refuse to accept that Appetite for Destruction was meant to be my generations rock revival.

despite some of the claims made in prior reviews, this is not their best cd. My guess is that those who say it is have only listened to SYMM. This cd picks up the pace for sure, it is good times rock n' roll, but the lyrics in part are a little shallow, and the band is definitely missing front man marc ford, though Rich does an okay job with the lead guitar. Welcome to the Goodtimes, Virtue and Vice, Go faster, and Kickin my heart around make the cd well worth buying, but if you don't have Amorica (dark and disturbing), or Southern Harmony (the greatest rock album of the 90's), you are missing out. The lyrics and guitars on both are incredible.

For starters, The Crowes are an amazing rock n' roll band. Their music is more than welcome considering the severe absence of good rock n' roll these days. As far as By Your Side goes, most people's biggest criticism is that it is too polished. My response to this is that it is important to understand that once a band has been together for as long as these guys have, they naturally get tighter. I don't think this should be mistaken for over-production or anything. And, personally I would not prefer a recording to be sloppy simply so I can say without a doubt that I haven't bought some nice, neat, corporate package. I'd rather trust the musicians. The songcraft on this album is great. The melodies are strong and are not a mere regurgitation of anything else. The guitars are superb and well-driven. Additionally, there are alot of classic Crowe-isms, keeping an identifiable element of consistency with their other records. Also, you can listen to this album the whole way through; every song is awesome. This album rocks, pure and simple, and is a must have.

I absolutely loved this album when it came out. To me it was the most exciting thing we had heard from this great band in over 6 years. After the first two albums, I found "Amorica" too experimental and "Three Snakes And a Charm" a slight improvement but a bit slow in spots. This effort just gets back to basics--both for the Crowes in particular and rock and roll in general.

Sure, there are none of the understated drawn-out, experimental sounds that the music critics who hate melodic rock music like. And that's what's so great about it. I wouldn't want each of their albums to sound just like this, but at the time (a time when grunge was mercifully beginning to die but when boy bands were truly taking over the popular music universe) this release hit the spot. For sure, it still does.

"Kickin' My Heart Around" was the first single released--and I was instantly pumped when I first heard it. A catchy, rocking song with attitude. The title track and "Only A Fool" were other tracks that I heard on the radio--both very endearing anthems with great background vocals. Other standout tracks include the opener "Go Faster", the closer "Virtue and Vice", and "Heavy". Just an amazingly catchy overall effort that is so refreshing to hear in this day and age. I like the Crowes' latest album "Lions" almost as much, as it continues the interesting evolutionary process of this band's music. But for sure, no rock album hit the spot more than this one at the time it came out.