Hard to believe it’s been well over a year since The Knack
\ngraced the pages of “The Daily Vault” – I really have to get the
\nPierce Archives computerized (as well as organized) one of these
\ndays.<\/p>\n
Following the surprise success of their debut album
\nGet The Knack<\/i>, Doug Fieger and crew quickly regrouped to
\nrecord their second album,
\n…but the little girls understand<\/i>. But somehow, when they
\ndug out the recipe for success they used on their first album,
\nsomething went terribly wrong. Maybe it was their trying to create
\ncopycat hits from “My Sharona,” maybe it was they didn’t spend
\nenough time fine-tuning the songwriting process. Whatever the case,
\nthis album is a weak followup.<\/p>\n
After creating such a furor with “My Sharona,” The Knack return
\nto the dirty old man guise with “Baby Talks Dirty”. Unfortunately,
\nnot only is this not as good of a song, it’s also a poor copy,
\nright down to the staccato guitar line in the body of the song.
\nPlus, the innuendo-laden swagger the band had put forth just one
\nalbum ago on songs like “Good Girls Don’t” seems real stale.<\/p>\n
Too bad the band didn’t drop the innuendo after one song; it’s
\nstill pretty strong on “Mr. Handleman,” and has a lesser presence
\non “I Want Ya”. But by this time, they’ve slipped from the Beatles
\nwith a hard-on to a poor cover band in their sound. No doubt about
\nit, the songwriting is definitely not as strong this time
\naround.<\/p>\n
Oh, they try to put on a more “sensitive man” face on songs like
\n“Can’t Put A Price On Love,” and this song does succeed a little
\nmore than some of the others, but it’s too little, too late. Let’s
\nface it, on
\nGet The Knack<\/i>, Fieger and company first established
\nthemselves as a rock band before they delved into pervert-land.<\/p>\n
The bulk of
\n…but the little girls understand<\/i> is made up of the dreaded
\nfiller – the songs aren’t bad, but they aren’t good, either. The
\nwhole second side seems like the band is sprinting towards the
\nfinish line, churning out six songs in just over 15 minutes. Cuts
\nlike “(Havin’ a) Rave Up,” “End Of The Game” and “How Can Love Hurt
\nSo Much” just seem to pass through the head without leaving any
\nsolid impression – that’s not a good thing.<\/p>\n
What could have made this album a little better? First, more
\ntime – you can hear the rush job that this album became, a release
\nto capitalize on their recently-found fame. Had they spent a little
\nmore time writing solid songs, even if they still were at
\ncrotch-level, I think this album would have been more fondly
\nremembered. Second, they had to stop reading their own press
\nreleases and tone down the songs a tad. I’m no prude by any means,
\nbut people seem to classify The Knack with guys who wear raincoats
\nand flash city buses. They were better musicians than their lyrics
\nhinted at.<\/p>\n
\n…but the little girls understand<\/i> has a certain amount of
\nkitsch value, I guess, but not much more to offer. If you
\nabsolutely must own this to make your collection complete, then
\npick it up. Otherwise, your life won’t be incomplete if you never
\nhear Fieger make orgasmic noises in lieu of singing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5687],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-39046","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-knack","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39046","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39046"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}