I swear I haven’t done drugs in years.
\nYears<\/i>. Putting this disc into my CD player brought back such
\nsevere seventies flashbacks that I could have sworn I was tripping
\nthe light fantastic one more time. I could smell the cheap beer and
\nstale cigarette smoke inside the Red Lion Pub again, college bar
\nthat was home to illustrious local heroes such as M & R Rush,
\nREO Speedwagon, Styx, and a few years earlier, Cheap Trick.
\nEverybody seemed to be wearing tight designer jeans with hair picks
\nsticking out of the back pocket. Men and women had the requisite
\nlong, feathered hair. Wait, no, it’s really 1999 and I definitely
\nhave graduated from college a long time ago. It’s just that the
\nmusic brings back such, such\u2026such horrible bar band
\nmemories.<\/p>\n
To their credit, on this their ninth release, Enuff Z’Nuff was
\nsmart enough to recruit two huge stars from the power pop era of
\nthe late seventies and throw in a nineties guy to look hip. Rick
\nNielsen from Cheap Trick, James Young from Styx and Billy Corgan
\nfrom the Smashing Pumpkins all drop by for a few jams.
\nUnfortunately, the strongest tracks on this album all appear
\ncourtesy of one of their guest stars. You gotta wonder how strong a
\nalbum this is when the cover sticker highlights the guests’
\nappearances more than any of the band’s own material.<\/p>\n
The most obvious problem with this record is that it’s so
\nderivative. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, and in
\nthat case, Enuff Z’Nuff should thank Cheap Trick heartily,
\nfollowing up with late seventies arena rock dinosaurs from Boston,
\nJourney, Styx and even to the lesser known eighties darlings, those
\nAussies, Split Enz. Even in the press release, Chip Z’Nuff clearly
\nstates a song like “Invisible” is part Lenny Kravitz, part Led
\nZeppelin and admits that “Top of the Hill” marries the New York
\nDolls to Stone Temple Pilots. Listening to this album did have that
\nweird flashback sense of I’d heard this all somewhere before, but
\nit’s been done much better.<\/p>\n
The album’s opener ,”Freak”, showcases some of Nielsen’s fancy
\nfingerwork, but little else. “Top Of The Hill”, which features
\nYoung on guitar, is a complete throwaway, leaning too heavily on
\noverworked guitar solos, Young’s trademark back when he posed as
\nStyx’ guitarist. He does put some finesse and funk into the R&B
\ncut “Invisible”, one of the few tunes that feels authentic and
\nmildly more interesting.<\/p>\n
The one standout is “Habit”, a mid-tempo rocker that has some
\nbeautiful acoustic guitar work and lilting vocal harmonies by
\nZ’Nuff. Lyrically reflective and soul-searching, it also blends
\ntempos and musical intensity better than any other cut. The cover
\nof the Cheap Trick song, “Everything Works If You Let It”, where
\nCorgan throws in a rather frenzied and spirited guitar performance,
\nshows some spunk and originality but isn’t exactly what I’d call an
\nA-Cut Cheap Trick cover.<\/p>\n
Most songs, from “Believe In Love” to the maudlin, blatant Elvis
\nCostello rip-off “Loser Of The World”, are just plain dreadful, run
\nof the mill slop. It’s like listening to your favorite bar band
\ncirca the late seventies, but I’ve heard bar bands who played
\nbetter and had more original material than this collection of
\ndribble. Mostly,
\nParaphernalia<\/i> is boring and recycled formulas ripped off
\nfrom every bad rock clich\u00e9 from 1970 on. The band didn’t
\nmake matters worse with crappy production and thus sounding more
\namateurish. They hired veteran mixer Chris Shephard, who thankfully
\nhas stellar credits in his past to redeem himself with from working
\nwith the Pumpkins to Wilco. I’d say leave this one off the resume,
\nChris, if your reputation means anything to you.<\/p>\n
This record covers territory too familiar to most listeners and
\nwithout the excitement or energy. Unless, of course, you’re one of
\nthose classic rockers who’d rather hear second-rate imitations of
\nall your favorites. Personally, I prefer living in the present and
\nleaving those flashbacks where they belong – in the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":27637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6133],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-39012","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-enuff-znuff","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39012","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39012"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39012"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}