From afar, London’s Wildhearts are a band that I have always
\nkept a wary eye on. Everyone I know who has heard these guys swears
\nby them, but my taste of the material found on the band’s other
\nalbums I own,
\nP.H.U.Q.<\/i> and
\nEndless, Nameless<\/i> (along with four or five bootleg gigs),
\nhave always left me with a pretty bland impression. The fact that
\nGearhead Records has released the Wildhearts’ first album stateside
\n(and made it relatively easy to find in stores) in over a decade
\ngives me reason to merit an opinion of the material found on the
\nband’s most recent release,
\nRiff After Riff<\/i>, after making the tentative purchase.<\/p>\n
Recycling a handful of tunes off of the Wildhearts’ 2002
\nJapanese release,
\nRiff After Riff After Motherfucking Riff<\/i>, I find I can’t
\nhelp but snicker at what I’m hearing on a presumably neutered
\nderivative of that release. Maybe that’s not a fair thing for me to
\ndo as the fretwork shared by Ginger is rather innovative and catchy
\nthroughout a large part of the album but I just can’t get over the
\nfact that he oh-so-blatantly “recycles” another riff by way of the
\nHellacopters hit “Soulseller” on the opening of “Action
\nPanzer.”<\/p>\n
I guess this proves that long-haired rockers are just plain
\ndumb. Ripping off a riff from another band’s work is one thing, but
\nto do such a thing when that band is a contemporary of yours and
\nstill includes the source song as a staple in their live set is
\njust criminal – if not sadly funny.<\/p>\n
That gaffe aside,
\nRiff After Riff<\/i> is a somewhat unique effort in today’s
\nmusical rock n’ roll climate. Meaningful song arrangements set to a
\nbackground of momentum-changing guitar solos gives this album
\nrefreshing appeal. Vocally speaking, Ginger could be confused as a
\nslightly more masculine version of Cheap Trick’s throat, Robin
\nZander. Such an association screams songs with melody. That
\nassumption is fair as the songs on
\nRiff After Riff<\/i> prove.<\/p>\n
As such, my dilemma in assessing
\nRiff After Riff<\/i> stems from the fact that I have always been
\npained in listening to Cheap Trick for the sole reason of Zander’s
\ncheery vocals. By and large, you get such fuzzy sentiments on
\nRiff After Riff<\/i> which only serves to contrast the healthy
\ndose of aggressive guitar riffing. Some of the more notable
\nshredding is found introducing the tracks “Lake Of Piss,” “Stormy
\nIn The North, Karma In The South” and “Return To Zero,” which keep
\nthose songs interesting. The extended aggression on “Return To
\nZero” and “O.C.D.” attempt to alienate these tracks from the
\noverall feel good vibe that
\nRiff After Riff<\/i> decidedly provides. From my perspective,
\nthis is truly a good thing. From where I sit, these two notable
\nexamples of continued manliness translate into two points for the
\nWildhearts.<\/p>\n
To the contrary, tracks including “Putting It On,” “Better Than
\nCable” and “Bang!” offer little in the way of distraction from
\nthose annoying happy choruses. There is nothing instrumental
\nhappening in the triumvirate of songs that capture any lasting
\ninterest in me and quite frankly it’s these moments that leave me
\ncraving a spin and listen to one of those Hellacopters albums of
\nwhich I was earlier speaking.<\/p>\n
The interviews and tour diaries Ginger has given us over the
\nyears typecast him just short of being a major league crybaby for
\nthe lack of worldwide success eluding the Wildhearts over the last
\ndecade. After listening to
\nRiff After Riff<\/i>, all I can say is that if London’s
\nflavor-of-the-day, the Darkness, can headline tours on multiple
\ncontinents, maybe Ginger does actually have a legitimate beef. This
\ndoesn’t mean that I have to love the band or even this album, but
\neven I’ll admit the Wildhearts are capable of churning out songs
\nthat have the ability to capture mass appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":26810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7065],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38085","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-wildhearts","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38085"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38085"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}