4 keepers
keeper avg .286
To put the supergroup's first album in chronological perspective, Wilco released their quaint debut album "A.M", The Jayhawks their 4th and Top 100 charting "Tomorrow The Green Grass" (Mark Olson's last with Jayhawks), and Soul Asylum released their second multi-platinum album "Let Your Dim Light Shine," all in 1995. So a pivotal time for all involved. "V" and (Soul Asylum guitarist) Dan Murphy's "Ill Fated"**** start the album with a rocking pair of tracks somewhere between "I'd Run Away" and "Casino Queen;" Murphy (and The Jayhawks' Marc Perlman) also provide the jokey "Red Headed Stepchild"****, in which (seemingly) the entire complement raucously sings the snickering chorus "Don't run away red headed stepchild, I can only promise you won't find your way back home." "Won't Be Coming Home" is kind of a cool "lost" Jayhawks track; apparently the Jayhawks demoed it, and Olson shares songwriting credit, but it didn't make it on a Jayhawks album.
Jeff Tweedy's several contributions vary widely in style and quality. The acoustic, more-Uncle Tupelo "Radio King" (with The Jayhawks Gary Louris) and heavier "Walk Where He Walked" are middling songs for him at the time, while "Pecan Pie" is overly cutesy and already sounds tossed-off (especially for the third track on the album). Tweedy also sings the album's only two covers; Golden Smog's version of the Faces' classic "Glad & Sorry"**** is a more refined and focused performance than the original, though it captures less of the original's weary melancholy. The band is less successful at covering Bobby Patterson's soulful ballad "She Don't Have to See You," though that's not really Tweedy's fault in this case.
The lesser-known Kraig Johnson, who would later join The Jayhawks for two albums, is a wild-card that figures heavily into Golden Smog, receiving writing credit on half of the album's original compositions and heavily influencing the band's vocals as a second "high singer" (along with Gary Louris). Curiously, the two have such similar vocal ranges that they kind of make the more-earthy Jeff Tweedy stick out like a sore thumb. Except for the jaunty "V," which was co-written by Louris, his songs, especially "Yesterday Cried", "Friend", and "Williamton Angel," are slower and more melancholy than most. That is except for the goofy and cartoon-ishly rustic "He's A Dick"****, an amusing country ballad about a shiftless acquaintance.
While all of the supergroup's contributors have their own variation of the then-burgeoning alt-country sound the album is remarkably cohesive. Though not the greatest work by any involved, with only a couple clunkers it's a worthwhile snapshot of a memorable time when the new genre was moving into the mainstream (no pun intended) but still exciting.
Comments