I remember seeing a Wolfmother video about five years ago and thinking, that’s some kinda guitar tone. I’ll have to look into them. A couple weeks ago I saw that they had a new album out and thought, now I should check out their first album. (I usually like to be about five years behind the curve of pop culture. It gives the right amount of time for the historical chaff and one-hit wonders to fall by the wayside.) And in purchasing Wolfmother’s Wolmother, I found what critics and fans discovered years ago: if you like Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath, you’ll looove Wolfmother! If the 2000s were a discount parfumerie, Wolfmother would be called Our Version Of 1972.

But it’s a convincing scent. Wolfmother pulls out all the stops/clichés/tricks: the K2-sized guitar sound, the riff-driven songwriting; the riff-mirroring melodies; the strict adherence to pentatonic scales; the dramatic tempo changes; the dark arpeggioed organ solos; the wailing lead vocals; the A-A-A-A rhyme schemes. And the lyrics, oh the lyrics! Listening to Wolfmother almost requires a conscious compartmentalizing of poetic judgment and a willingness to say, “These vague fantasy-driven couplets mean nothing to anyone anywhere — and that’s okay.”

While pop music lyrics rarely reach the level of fine art, it may be equally as rare that ferociously sincere pop lyrics reach a level of keen parody. Consider these lines from the aptly titled Woman: “She’s a woman, you know what I mean” — we know what he means, he means business, he means action, he means lust and betrayal! — “You better listen, listen to me” — we’re with you, soul of a woman was created below, tell us your cautionary tale, o mystic scribe! — “She’s gonna set you free oh oh yeah” — wait, woman is salvation? I thought they were prisons of carnal desire and dark obsession. But the woman responds, “You’ve come looking for me, like I’ve got to set you free / You know I can’t free nobody … I can’t be nobody.” Well, that is quite the distinction. Sex with her will neither free you nor let her be you. In case that was in question.

All that said, Wolfmother is probably the best classic rock of the century. They’re unabashed mimics of their heroes and are unapologetic practitioners of the heavy metal discipline. Their sound is big and loud and will remind you of everything you love about the bands who pioneered the style. Which is fine by me. I just pretend I don’t hear lines like “Can you see it’s full of lightning  / All the futures that I see are whitening” (hello, Crest sponsorship???)  and keep staring at the iTunes visualizer.

As soon as I wear out Wolfmother, I’ll move on to Cosmic Egg, their sophomore effort that features 2/3rds of a new band. And hopefully I can catch them the next time they’re in LA. For those that missed them last month, here they are joined by surprise guest Slash at the Wiltern: