Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, the top spot goes to X for their nostalgic new single “Big Black X.”
LA punk legends X will be releasing their final album in August, punctuating their storied career.
The group’s output in the ’80s captured a time and place — a harsh and turbulent Hollywood and its burgeoning punk scene — with literary poignancy. These LPs can sit next to John Fante novels on the bookshelf, just as well as they can assume the sole ‘X’ entry in your alphabetized record collection. Yet, for all the poetic emphasis in the lyrics of Exene Cervenka and John Doe — the defining trait of their art — the songs always had something to cling onto musically, as well: a wiley surf riff from Billy Zoom, a memorable vocal hook, a catchy chorus, etc.
“Big Black X,” the lead single from X’s upcoming album Smoke & Fiction, is a nostalgic revisitation of everything I just mentioned in that last paragraph. The lyrics see Exene reminiscing about the group’s formative days, with the song title itself referencing the seminal LP Under the Big Black Sun as well as the giant ‘X’ the band took from the signage of a decommissioned skyscraper to burn for the cover of their debut album, Los Angeles.
As their 2020 comeback album, Alphabetland, proved in spades, the band hasn’t lost its chops, either. Here we get the haunting harmonies of Cervenka and Doe, the rockabilly/surf wizardry of Billy Zoom, and the ever-steady drumming of DJ Bonebrake. It is instantly identifiable as an X song and a fitting self-reflection on the years that forged one of punk rock’s most enduring groups.