No one is likely to mistake Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina for Wyman and Watts, but with the right leader (Neil Young, say), their irregular pulse and off-kilter kerplunkety provide crucial warmth and character. Crazy Horse's 1971 self-titled debut, with Danny Whitten, Nils Lofgren and Jack Nitzsche, remains a roots-inflected, heavy-rock touchstone, boasting a uniformly strong set balancing mournful ballads and left-field rockers (notably, an ode to erectile dysfunction and a party stomper about scoring heroin). Just a year later, the follow-up Loose found Talbot and Molina fronted by an anonymous collection of minor leaguers, delivering limp country-rock several notches below the not exactly hearty CSN/Eagles standard. Rhino's "limited edition" supplements the official releases with the usual oddments and arcana, but given the original lineup's too-brief run, these barrel scrapings inspire a benevolent indulgence. The simulated innocence of the early-'60s close harmony and Brill Building knockoffs that close the set is sweet enough to induce tears.
Read next
ALBUM REVIEW: Caroline Rose Shapeshifts Again on 'Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall'
Most artists might find the idea of reinventing themselves each time they put out new music to be utterly terrifying, but most artists aren’t Caroline Rose. A fearless and restless creator with a true DIY spirit, Rose has been steadily finding new, different parts of themself over more than
ALBUM REVIEW: Rayland Baxter Steps Out of the Rut and Into the Light on 'True Violet'
“I’m gonna walk away from a bad day,” Rayland Baxter sings on the aptly titled “Real Bad Rut” off his first new record in four years, True Violet. And in many ways, that is just what he did, going off the grid to cope with a hard time and
ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Shaving A Dead Man,’ JP Harris Plays Intuitive Interpreter of an Old-Time Songbook
On JP Harris’s latest release, fans won’t encounter the tough-as-nails twang of albums past. They won’t hear the razor-edged, fork-tongued honky tonk that has soundtracked a decade of hard-ridden ballads and last-ditch elegies. Listeners will instead unearth something far more innate
Comments ()