Still reeling from
Paul's Boutique, my first reaction to Concrete Blonde was one of delight when I heard the ringing guitar at the start of opening track,
True. It's a great track, with some good lyrics. Faster tempo
Haunted House has a nice aggressive guitar solo, but then the intensity suddenly dropped on the third track,
Dance Along The Edge which I felt was a bit mediocre. But things bounce back up again for
Still In Hollywood:I loved the lyrics and the wild, biting guitar throughout this track.
Song For Kim is another so-so song, imo, and although it has an interesting new tone for the brief guitar solo, the song sets a kind of base-line for the album, which the band keeps coming back to: short songs that are ok, but not outstanding. While these lesser songs were playing, my mind turned to two questions: (i) is the female vocalist reminding me of Blondie or the girl in The Pretenders? Or perhaps Kim Carnes, given that song title. (ii) why have they stuck so firmly to the three-and-a-bit minute format for their songs? Minutes are to music like bricks are to buildings: it's what you use to create something. To make a cathedral, you need a lot of bricks, but Concrete Blonde keep building songs with only a few bricks: they manage to squeeze in a verse or two, middle 8, chorus and quick guitar solo, then wrap things up as if to meet their self-imposed time limit. Next song, same as previous: assemble the essential components and then stop, instead of trying for something longer and more ambitious.
Well, those minor grumbles took longer to explain than I expected, so to redress that impression and get some perspective back, even the lesser songs are pretty good. I liked
Little Sister and even more so
Make Me Cry, with its strummed acoustic guitar. One minute it sounded like a nice retro nod to The Beatles, then made me think of The Eagles. In its soft way, it's an album highlight for me, while the rocking highlight is
Still In Hollywood . Instrumental
True is good, but too short.
8.5 is my vote for this album, Rubber Soul: thanks for introducing me to a band that I will definitely explore furthur.
