CHARLY’S ROCK COLUMN: PAUL WELLER – A Kind Revolution (2017)

Review by: Charly Saenz

It’s 2017 and we have Paul Weller’s new album? Come on, Let’s hear it for the Modfather!

This is a cool launch: “Woo Se Mama” is the great single and album opener, soulful, explosive. P.P. Arnold and Madeline Bell collaborate in the effervescent backing vocals, no less!

“Nova” continues on a rocking note, adding some quality horns here and there. And the guitar! Paul is playing some nice licks all over the album. But the echoey, dreamy voices are the best here. Subtle Psychedelia touches galore, brushes of Bowie, a refreshing adventure thru and thru.

“Long Long Road” is a masterful, classic ballad. Man, it’s been a long time since I heard a great ballad like this. There’s not much to say about it, you just gotta listen to it.

“She Moves With The Fayre” is more jazzy, but the guitar sound sticks around and leads. I like this approach. Paul’s playing is melodic and engaging, and thus we avoid the choon to become a Style Council leftover. Also, Robert Wyatt collaborate here with trumpets (including a solo) and vocals! Cool!.

“The Cranes Are Back” is led by a buzzing bass, nice backing vocals, and a softer, loungy atmosphere, reminding us of past Weller albums like Wild Wood. “Hopper” has a magnificent melody (the main hook is irresistible), some nice organ work, more “big band” horns and acoustic guitars.. And that laid back feeling of Paul finally coming to terms with life:

“I’m sat in a corner
I’ve merged with the wall
Become part of the painting
No point fighting it all
I’m quite relaxed
It’s fine with me…”

“New York” has a great Hair style! (No. Not a hairdo, but Hair, the movie). A fantastic love song (a Life Love Song too). The organ work is once more impressive but that rocking guitar never disappears, even crunching in the background at the end.

“One Tear”, once more started by a serious bass.. is an electronic, funky affair, to remind us that Weller will never stop trying “something else” and trying new toys and ideas. After the brief introduction there’s a clean, strong beat. You can’t help but dance to it, young kid. Get on your feet and do it.. The electronic pulse is in the background but it merges with a more classic structure. Paul’s gruffy voice is put to test, but God it delivers. An infectious dancing number. Guess who’s the guest here? Boy George on vocals!

“Satellite Kid” is another rocking number which functions as Weller’s statement as he approaches his 60 years on earth:

“Don’t count me out
Don’t you dismiss me
My medicines strong
Whatcha gonna do without me”

“The Impossible Idea” is a sort of waltz that manages to end up the album in a singalong mode. I can picture myself singing, love-drunk or just wine-drunk:

“I like hanging around
Til I switch on
The impossible idea
That Love might
Change the world
Maybe I’ll come to the conclusion
Until I can change myself
And there I’ll fall”

There’s a pretty accordion somewhere that paints a nice detail.. A beautiful ending to my favourite album.. in a long time. This is Paul Weller finding his old best self, stepping out of unlimited innovation and using his melodic wits for the best cause. A solid 9 but just because. It could easily be a 10.

 

CHARLY’S ROCK COLUMN: KISS – Rock and Roll Over (1976)

Review by: Charly Saenz

Rock and Roll Over – Argentina Edition

“I Want You” is one of those classic Kiss stadium pleasers. And it pleases me to no end, the slow part, the fast part. It works, it’s pure Stanley. “Take Me” is direct crunching hard rock, with that hiccup chorus and echo voices. Another Stanley rocker, this time with a quite involved solo by Ace.

Gene brings his super classic “Callin’ Dr Love” to the party. The key though, are the background vocals, most surely Paul & Ace but also some wicked “hidden” vocals, which I bet are provided by Gene. Ace really shines here, boy. “Ladies Room” is one of those pure rock and roll Kiss songs, not much to say, but it’s a good one. “Baby Driver”, composed and sung by Peter Criss, in his usual funky style, it’s a nice different touch to close Side A. Did I tell you I’m listening to this on cassette? As it should be!

Well, Side B is a different affair for me. “Love’em, Leave’em” is the quintessential repetitive hard rock song with a nasty chorus; only Ace does something to save this mess, fortunately it ain’t too long. “Mr Speed” is even more forgettable. “See You In Your Dreams” is insufferable, Gene, please don’t dream about me. And I won’t even mention “Makin’ Love”. Oh I did: Hell’s Bloody Bells. Well, to be honest, Ace shines in the solo, but listening to Paul’s continuous plea for sex gives me a headache. What an irony.

But you get “Hard Luck Woman” too! a precious ballad by Paul, sung by Peter’s raspy voice (heck it was meant to be sung by Rod Stewart. That makes sense). In my heart it’s a much better song than “Beth”. It made it to the Top 20 but didn’t get that much love out of the circle except in old rusty Classic Rock radios.

I guess this is a usually forgotten album – but Side A and that classic in Side B are quite good! And the Argentina bloody cover is cool! Well – You make the best of what’s still around, you know.

CHARLY’S ROCK COLUMN: THE KINKS – SINGLES HISTORY – Part 1: Early Kinks (1964)

Written by: Charly Saenz

It’s almost a thrill to listen to that clumsy version of “Long Tall Sally”, their first single.. It’s really an amateur band sound in retrospect (George Martin said that newer bands tend to record in a higher speed.. Emotions out of control?), and not necessarily in the bad sense. They *mean it*, like The Beatles in their stuff pre “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, they’re hungry for more, baby. Ray wrote the flip side, and it’s hardly any better you know, but hey, family, friends, we were recording!

It’s in the second single “You Still Want Me” (and the similar sounding “You Do Something To Me”, both sides written by Ray), where they really shine – a precious melody and hooks, and well, let me tell you, it’s the kind of frame of mind in the recording companies those days you had to change. Why recording covers? Not everyone could, but Ray COULD write.

Those were harsh times and you had to get a hit, so we did that razor thing with the speaker and Dave came up with that feedback storm (it’s 1964, get this in your system!), that piercing sting called “You Really Got Me”. In those times The Kinks were about electricity you know, so no big words from Ray, but he wrote a musical anthem for the early Kinks. It was a monolithic achievement. “It’s All Right” on the other side, was unremarkable: another “let’s all scream in concert” tune (a cousin of “I’m Alright” by the Stones, probably).

Same year, The Kinks released an EP called “Kinksize Session”, with a “Louie Louie” cover; much better than “Long Tall Sally”, at least Ray sang in his own gritty voice, not like a suicidal lamb. Can’t say much about “I Gotta Go Now” but it’s marginally better than the cover (they’d perfect this style on albums like “Kinda Kinks” or even on “Kontroversy”). “Things Are Getting Better” is another frantic number, quite disposable.  But “I’ve Got That Feeling” with that pretty piano (Nicky “Session Man” Hopkins perhaps?) is a beauty. Going slower is sometimes a great decision…

.. But we accelerated a bit for “All Day And All Of The Night”. Certainly a successful clone, a sombre child of “You Really Got Me”, and I usually prefer the child, as it’s slightly darker, more intense, and obsessive. The B-side, “I Gotta Move” is very good, with a pretty crescendo at the end, as it never leaves the original punching beat (kudos to Mick Avory’s hi hat); also a much better realized song for a dynamic concert number (in this case, the Stones title-alike would be “I’m Moving On”).

This was, dear friends, a single year in the life of The Kinks.. Evolution? Well I’d say quite some big steps for them and humanity, but they would be bigger steps next year.

CHARLY’S ROCK COLUMN: THE KINKS – Muswell Hillbillies (1971)

Review by: Charly Saenz

We, big Time Crooks, are looking for Heroes constantly. Or any source of flaming inspiration – almost the same, right? We look for signs, for last minute approvals to our risky self-challenges. BIG SIGNS (“In the end the love you make is equal to the love you take” What does it mean? Should I call her tonight and make a real move?). Music comes along in our life experience as one of our best pals.

There are such big signs in music. And believe me I’m the first to love a Deaf Dumb and Blind Boy’s opera. Or a concept album about war dementia and absent father issues.

But then you have Ray. And Dave. And The Kinks.

The sixties, that was some bloody long decade. Fantastic: dramatic, tragic, funny, romantic. And we had heroes of all the colors and shapes. And we had The Kinks. The band everybody loves to re-rate, because no matter what happens to bring them back from the dead (Internet, those expensive deluxe editions, anything), it’s always “Oh The Kinks, yes, the best band ever!” And then just “Ah. The Kinks. Yeah, pretty good. Play Led Zeppelin, please” – The Kinks are always underrated.

Thing is, Ray designed that glorious but somehow ignored path from 1966 to 1969 and then he started to look back into Sweet Disdaining America. First it was “Lola” in 1970 – quite a success, to be honest  (they didn’t get it, that’s why they bought it). BUT, then… Ray strikes back. This album stinks of cheap booze, faux western movies, runaway jailbirds, and sweaty toothless luck. Country and Western designed under the heavy smoke of London.

Everything is wrong about Muswell Hillbillies. Maybe that’s why it feels so right. Ray, The Apeman, would always appear to be doing the opposite thing to what he was expected to do. Damn that thin guy doesn’t look that dangerous. But this music is .. provoking (provoKINK?) in its simplicity. In a way no tremendous anthemic Ode To God (however necessary, Happy Brian, we love you) may be able to.

There’s that opening anti-overture called “20th Century Man”. Man.. What a depressing and still incendiary way to start an album. A real acoustic punkish frenzy. There’s this paranoia, delivered with that british quiet desperation that Roger Waters will define two years later, the “Acute Schizophrenia Blues” that should be Snowden’s first cover in America if he decides to record when he gets back home … Oh Forget it.

This seems to be the point when Davies really starts to fall for a more theatrical approach, both musically and in terms of performance. The only way you may escape “The People In Grey” is sinking back in your raggy couch with some bottle and equally raggy memories – which may not even be yours. So as an antidote, you find those fake oldies like “Alcohol” (apparently in a live concert, it was a highlight, Ray had a Shakespearean actor inside him) or “Holiday”. And a little sparkle in the bouncy rhythm and the ironic message of “Skin And Bone” (Eating disorders, hello from 1971).

For me there’s nothing as soothing as “Complicated Life” (“Life is overrated, life is complicated” – You bet, Ray). Or you prefer to listen to some Pretty Hollywood lie? Better stand and face it, I’ll say. From the bottom of the well we’ll try to find some peace. But there’s little. It’s a miracle that Ray can find a balance with the dreamy realism of “Oklahoma, USA” and its musical box beauty (“If life’s for living then what’s living for?”). And the musical box really extends to “Uncle Son” with that imported country vibe.

It’s only with the upbeat ending of “Muswell Hillbilly” that you feel that somehow you gotta get your girl out  (your cousin will do) and dance,  and let her shake those long scruggy boots – be it in the shining beach shores of Rio de Janeiro, the endless plains of Buenos Aires or any other place you know of – Myself, I’ve not travelled that much as you see, but if Ray Davies could make such a successful American Country Rock album without a bit of guilt, I can gladly paint my town and in the process, paint the world.  I’ll declare that this is Art for the Decades, with the advantage of being 45 years in the future. Thank you, Ray, for helping make this overrated, complicated life a quite acceptable place to live.