The album incorporates elements of rock and roll, surf and heavy metal, which has drawn critical comparisons to Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart and Link Wray.Observing the sessions, Boss Users Group Magazine writer Sam Molineaux said Lynch's in-studio writing process was "an individualistic approach to composition that seems more rooted in artistic whim than music theory or instrumental technique.[3][7] The album's official press release referred to it as "industrial blues",[1] which the Los Angeles Times considered "an apt description for the guttural sonic atmosphere of distorted guitars, stark production and Neff's netherworld vocals.[3] The final sound of the album, described by the Los Angeles Times as featuring a "space-age bluesy atmosphere and dark scenarios", drew comparisons to Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart.Neff also created a custom MIDI-based guitar rig known as "Guitarkestra", which he used on three tracks: "Mountains Falling", "Pink Western Range" and "City of Dreams".[5] BlueBOB's percussion tracks—featured prominently on "Rollin' Down (To My House)", "Pink Western Range" and "City of Dreams"[5]—were created by Lynch and Neff sampling the noise of different machines."[10] The album was reissued in 13 European counties on Soulitude Records,[9] an independent label owned by Pascal Nabet Meyer, in 2002,[13] where it received "strong press interest".[15] Neff considered the idea of creating a multimedia theater presentation to promote BlueBOB's release in the U.S., as "radio exposure outside of public and college stations [was] unlikely."In one of the album's earliest reviews in Les Inrockuptibles in 2001, critic Stéphane Deschamps described BlueBOB as "a kind of mutant music, massive and threatening to basic blues and industrial music"; Deschamps praised BlueBOB's "creepy … ambiguous and refined" lyrics and likened its sound to various surf artists, including Gene Vincent and Link Wray, writing that their "primitive and seminal" influence were the album's "best moments".Boeckel considered the instrumental tracks—"Factory Interlude", "Blue Horse" and "Go Get Some"—as the standout parts of BlueBOB and believed it "lack[ed] of a strong contrasting presence" and that "the album may seem too monotonous for some tastes.Phares also criticized the album's "overdependence" on Neff's vocals, writing that "his raspy, sardonic voice adds an edge to some of the tracks but wears out its welcome relatively quickly", but summarized it as "dark, disjointed, unpredictable and highly unique".[2] In his "Real Life Rock Top Ten" column for City Pages, critic Greil Marcus referred to BlueBOB as "Link Wray opens for Pere Ubu" and the track "I Cannot Do That" as "the musical equivalent of an outtake from Lost Highway, furiously sustained."
Lynch and Neff's sound on
BlueBOB
was influenced by
John Lee Hooker
(
pictured in 1978
)
Olympia
in
Paris
, France (
pictured in 2009
), where Lynch and Neff performed their first-and-only concert in support of
BlueBOB
in November 2002