
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Steve Wynn - Melting In The Dark
Out on his own since the 1989 breakup of highly influential paisley underground act the
Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn spent the 1990s pursuing a solo career. While 1991's Dazzling Display found the singer incorporating both strings and horns into the mix, and 1994's self-produced Fluorescent seemed at times to head for the country, Melting in the Dark is a stylistic regression of sorts. Back in the production seat, Wynn is joined by Boston's Come for a batch of songs propelled by layers of gritty guitar rather than a delicate strum. The album announces its intentions from the opening snarl of "Why," a near-rockabilly number with drummer Arthur Johnson pounding away at his kit beneath the clamor. A guitar solo opts for a series of fractured textures over a conventional melody. The set opener is followed by the icy pop of "Shelley's Blues, Pt. 2" and the feedback trails and train-like rhythms of "What We Call Love." Wynn's admiration for Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground is made explicit on a handful of occasions. On both "The Angels" and "Silence Is Your Only Friend," he even sounds like the man himself. The former could be an outtake from New York, Wynn adopting Reed's dry, half-spoken/half-sung delivery, while the latter resembles the Velvets circa 1969. More often than not, however, such influences are better disguised and, as a result, more natural. The lack of tunefulness begins to wear as the album progresses, but otherwise the return to a stark, visceral, guitar-driven sound suited Wynn well.

Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts of the Week
-
This is not out of date post, i just couldnt find right time to post new Arctic Monkeys single. The second song from their third album ...
-
Modern Music Album Review: One of my fav. garage rock band is The walkmen.When i listened their album Everyone Who... they attracted my atte...
-
Every end of years, i share songs more different than classic Christmas songs! The Flaming Lips - Once Beyond Hopelessness (Christmas on Ma...
-
To say that Warner/Rhino/Sire's 2006 four-CD, one-DVD box set Pirate Radio is for the die-hard Pretenders fan may be stating the obviou...
-
Tomorrow, In a Year is an opera based on Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species". It is a collaboration between The Knife...
-
History They originally called themselves The Reactionaries , with additional band member and singer Martin Tamburovich. According to Watt, ...
-
Here are pre-FM recordings of the glorious din taped by the Sisters of Mercy for the Kid Jensen show on BBC Radio 1 in early 1983. Tracks 1-...
0 COMMENTS:
Post a Comment