Einstein’s First Law of Thermodynamics asserts that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. Apparently that applies to high energy, too – in the form of the MC5. Fifty-three years after their third album, High Time, the legendary Detroit rockers have just released the hardly-hoped-for follow-up, Heavy Lifting.
Never mind that everyone in the MC5 had passed away at the time of release (Wayne Kramer, Dennis Thompson and manager John Sinclair all died earlier this year), and that High Time had been heralded as their final album, praised as “one of the most defiant swan songs in rock music”. If any band could subvert the time-space continuum, it’s these cosmic-argonaut Sun Ra collaborators. Who could doubt that they could transubstantiate and release a new MC5 album from beyond the pale?
