keepers-4
keeper avg .308
From the first notes "Always A Friend" declares that this is a power pop album complete with ooh-ooh's and oh-oh's, though it's the modern album-oriented adult contemporary late Bruce Springsteen version. Still, it's a little catchy and nothing threatening awaits. Well "Chelsea Hotel '78"**** is here to tell you that's crap. Menacing characters and reeling violins create a dizzy atmosphere of the likes of Nick Cave as Escovedo spits his commentary "And it makes no sense, and it makes perfect sense". To counter all this rock the album does have its share of ballads. "Sister Lost Soul" is tuneful while having that R.E.M. / Wallflowers thing down, but "Sensitive Boys" is as limp as it sounds, however tongue-in-cheek. The first few songs flow in textbook fashion alternating light with dark, rockers with ballads, up to "People (We're Only Gonna Live So Long)" seems lifted from one of Robert Plant's latter-day heavy roots-folk efforts. "Golden Bear"**** takes a more ominous turn; shakers hint at something scary just out of view and the wavery piano hints at something alien (like in David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes". "Nun's Song"**** builds each seething verse to a blazing chorus, and "Real As An Animal"**** beats out another Nick Cave rocker. Except for "Chip N' Tony", which again seems borrowed from Robert Plant or Band Of Joy, the subsequent songs close the album with ballads, which are nothing special, but there is enough tension and weirdness to make the rest of the album worth living with for awhile.
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