5 keepers
keeper avg .416
On his second album maestro Karl Wallinger expands his influences to up the ante from his relatively modest 1987 debut; like on the previous album he still created most of the instrumental tracks himself, though there are a lot more designated to studio musicians on this album based on the credits.
The album's opener "Is It Too Late?" starts as minimalist blues, with a frankly dated direct line-in slide guitar over drum machine, but becomes a different animal when the instrumentation dramatically expands at bridge; perhaps the self-produced nature of the album allowed Wallinger to create such a satisfying dynamic, from something resembling a demo to a virtual orchestra in one song. The Dylanesque "Take It Up"**** is rough and endearingly earnest, but also hides in a modest arrangement until its densely textured bridge, while the similar "Put the Message in the Box"**** is just a fine AOR folk-rock ditty. Wallinger borrows the latin jazz "Sympathy For The Devil" groove for ironically exuberant and insanely catchy "Way Down Now"*****.
Wallinger is less successful when he dabbles in R&B, like the Al Green-like "Ain't Gonna Come Till I'm Ready" and the Prince-influenced "Show Me to the Top", cuz he's neither of those guys. He's more successful on "Love Street"**** a perfectly nice R&B ballad until he unleashes the most searing Neil Young guitar solo not played by Uncle Neil himself. Van Morrison and Celtic instrumentation inspired "Sweet Soul Dream," and Wallinger unapologetically channels John Lennon with the anxious "God on My Side."****
Eventually it's hard to overlook the pastiche of influences and even other writers' specific riffs and melodies that are left scattered around the record like easter eggs. The ones I picked out are: "And I Fell Back Alone" nicks the sound and tympanic percussion from "America" (Simon and Garfunkel 1968), "Way Down Now" has the hoo-hoo's from "Sympathy For The Devil" (1968), "Take It Up" slightly alters and borrows the bridge transition from "Here Comes The Sun" (1969, see a pattern?), and for "God on My Side" did he really think we wouldn't notice it's the melody from "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (The Band, 1969)? It could be a late 60's rock drinking game.
Instead of the light and breezy "Sweet Soul Dream," the little trip though Wallinger's record collection ends with the deliberately thumping "Thank You World"; odd to end the album with a song that starts off sounding really similar to "Jukebox Hero" (maybe "Come Together" is the true inspiration), though that's before the chorus unexpectedly bursts into Beatle-esque psychedelia. Surprising that a work with so many borrowed elements could yield so many welcome surprises of its own.
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