''In My Head'' is the sixth studio album by American band Black Flag. It was released in 1985 on

SST Records SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was formed in 1966 by Ginn at age 12 as Solid State Tuners, a small business through which he sold electronics equipm ...

, and was their final studio album before their breakup in 1986. The CD reissue adds three of the four songs that later appeared on the '' I Can See You'' EP, replicating the original 1985 cassette release which came out concurrent to the LP. After building a reputation for confrontational

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk ...

, late-era Black Flag turned to a more experimental, -inflected sound, in particular on their last two albums. Greg Ginn intended ''In My Head'' to be his first solo album. The cover is a collage of six drawings by

Raymond Pettibon Raymond Pettibon (born Raymond Ginn, June 16, 1957) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Pettibon came to prominence in the early 1980s in the southern California punk rock scene, creating posters and album art mainly for ...

Reception

The album received very positive reviews upon release. Robert Palmer, writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', found the music to be "intriguingly, sometimes dazzlingly fresh and sophisticated, but the band hasn't had to sacrifice an iota of the raw intensity and directness that are punk's spiritual center." He compared the "

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

of shifting shapes that is the principal guitar motif in the brilliant 'White Hot to "listening to the once-revolutionary guitar break from the Yardbirds' mid-60's hit '

Shapes of Things "Shapes of Things" is a song by the English rock group the Yardbirds. With its Eastern-sounding, feedback-laden guitar solo and anti-war/pro-environmental lyrics, several music writers have identified it as the first popular psychedelic rock ...

' while one's turntable goes up in flames." "Yet for all its sophistication," he continued, "this is jagged, abrasive rock and roll, music hard and direct enough to appeal to any punk or

hard-rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

fan. ..'In My Head' is the sound of heavy metal rock as it could be but almost never is, metal without the posturing, the pointless displays of fretboard prowess, the bashing rhythm sections and banal lyrics that have become endemic to the idiom." It also notably received a full score from the English music magazine ''Sounds'', which found it to be even better than the band's

debut Debut or début (the first public appearance of a person or thing) may refer to: * Debut (society), the formal introduction of young upper-class women to society * Debut novel, an author's first published novel Film and television * ''The Debu ...

. Retrospective reviews have also been largely positive. ''Punknews'' found the album to be more innovative & better produced than its predecessors, while John Dougan of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

called it "some of the best contemporary rock music extant." ''

Louder Sound ''Classic Rock'' is a British magazine and website dedicated to rock music, owned and published by Future. It was launched in October 1998 and is based in London. The magazine publishes 13 editions a year, mainly covering rock bands from the 60, ...

'' called it "one of the group's finest albums, with tsforeboding title track its most gloriously tortured moment. ..Healthy people don't make music like this, and indeed, soon after its release Black Flag were done." "Early Black Flag releases like ''

Nervous Breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

, Damaged'', and ''

My War ''My War'' is the second studio album by American band Black Flag. It was the first of three full-length albums released by the band in 1984. It polarized fans due to the LP's B-side, on which the band slowed down to a heavy, Black Sabbath-e ...

'' spawned tons of imitators," wrote ''

BrooklynVegan ''BrooklynVegan'' is an American online music magazine founded in 2004 by David Levine. The company is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, United States and originally focused on vegan food and the music community in and around New York City, ...

'', "and there's no way to overstate how influential they are, but ''In My Head'' has something else going for it. Over three decades later, you rarely hear other music that sounds like this."

Track listing

* Tracks 6, 7 and 12 reissued in 1989 on the '' I Can See You'' EP.

Personnel

Henry Rollins Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rolli ...

– vocals *

Greg Ginn Gregory Regis Ginn (born June 8, 1954) is an American guitarist, bassist, singer and songwriter, best known for being the leader, primary songwriter, and the only continuous member of the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led ...

– guitar *

Kira Roessler Kira Roessler (born June 12, 1961) is an American musician and two-time Emmy Award-winning dialogue editor. She is best known as the bassist for the influential hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1983 to 1985. Since the mid-1980s, she has been ...

– bass, background vocals * Bill Stevenson – drums *

– artwork

References

Works cited

* * {{Authority control Black Flag (band) albums 1985 albums SST Records albums Albums produced by Bill Stevenson (musician)