Artist: The Wallflowers
Title: Glad All Over
Genre: Country Rock / Americana
Release Date: 5th October 2012
Label: Smi Col (Sony Music)
Album Review
There was a time – during the 70s and 80s, mainly – that this kind of radio-friendly Americana was everywhere. When THE WALLFLOWERS first emerged in 1989, the music’s popularity appears to have been waning, although you’d never know it from the sales of their eponymous debut released in 1992, or indeed any of the records released by the band’s ever-changing line-up centres around founder and front man Jakob Dylan. It perhaps goes without saying the Californians have long enjoyed their greatest successes in their home country, touring with Eric Clapton and Counting Crows in recent years. Nevertheless, their fan base still extends far wider. While country is now ubiquitous in its multitudinous forms, the music of THE WALLFLOWERS is of a very clear vintage, with an equally clear debt to Bruce Springsteen.
‘Hospital For Sinners’ starts the album off with a classic rock vibe – a tube-crunched guitar with a vintage-style blues-based riff over a solid 4/4 rhythm, accompanied by a piping Hammond organ. Dylan’s vocals have just the right balance of drawl and grit, it’s a voice that sounds lived in without being knackered. There are overtones of DIRE STRAITS gracing ‘Misfits and Lovers’, but the uplifting chorus is pure Springsteen, and across the album’s 11 tracks, there are a fair few moments like this. ‘Reboot the Mission’ introduces a funked-up dance groove to the party. With a dash or reggae and a dubby bass line, it’s unexpected, but really rather well executed.
‘Love is a Country’ is another Springsteen-esque world-weary tale about the trials and tribulations but ultimate victory that is the challenging terrain of love, and ‘Have Mercy On Him Now’ reveals the up-tempo, honkin’ tonkin’ side of the band, bursting with bluster. The blues-rock country boogie of ‘The Devil’s Waltz’ and the insistent drumming that drives the anthemic ‘Won’t be Long (Till We’re Not Wrong’) make them obvious standouts. Granted, it’s more the kind of music many would associate with their parents, music that would be on the radio (or in the tape player) in the car when going on holiday, but that’s no bad thing, not least of all because there’s more to ‘Glad All Over’ than nostalgia. It’s a solid, easy-going album with spirit.
Tracklist
01. Hospitals For Sinners
02. Misfits And Lovers
03. First One In The Car
04. Reboot The Mission
05. It's A Dream
06. Love Is A Country
07. Have Mercy On Him Now
08. The Devil's Waltz
09. It Won't Be Long (Till We're Not Wrong Anymore)
10. Constellation Blues
11. One Set Of Wings
Line-up
Jakob Dylan, Vocals and Guitar
Rami Jaffee, Keyboards
Greg Richling, Bass
Jack Irons, Drums
Stuart Mathis, Guitar
Website
http://www.thewallflowers.com
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 7.5
Total: 7.25 / 10
