{"id":39780,"date":"2006-05-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/dumbing-up\/"},"modified":"2006-05-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-31T00:00:00","slug":"dumbing-up","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/dumbing-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Dumbing Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I wonder sometimes what World Party must sound like
\nto sometime who *didn’t* grow up in the 60s and 70s. Vaguely cool
\nand retro, I suppose. Melodically sophisticated, a bit cerebral,
\nand with production that somehow manages to come off as both
\norganic and densely layered.<\/p>\n

For those of us who were aborning around the time
\nJohn first met Paul, however, a listen to World Party is like an
\ninstant musical flashback. Hardly a track goes by that you don’t
\nthink “That sounds a little bit like________” (insert name of
\nmemorable 1965-69 melodic rock song, preferably by the Beatles).
\nThat might be a slam if the songs were second-rate, but they
\naren’t. World Party mastermind Karl Wallinger is a musical
\ncraftsman of the first order — he just happens to have a sound he
\nlikes, and it’s one that’s intensely familiar to those of us of a
\ncertain age.<\/p>\n

World Party came to fruition in 1986 as a vehicle for
\nWallinger’s solo work after he quit his position as keyboard player
\nfor the Mike Scott-led Waterboys. A
\nmulti-instrumentalist-singer-songwriter-producer, Wallinger brought
\nin other players to fill out the World Party sound as needed,
\nrelying most frequently over the years on the tasteful, chameleonic
\nguitar work of Dave Catlin-Birch.<\/p>\n

World Party’s fifth studio album Dumbing Up<\/i>
\nwas first released in 2000 under difficult circumstances; Wallinger
\nsuffered an aneurysm soon after its release and it was essentially
\nnever promoted. This year’s re-release on his own Seaview label has
\na reshuffled track order, remastered sound, two new tracks and a
\nbonus DVD with over two hours of material, including a treasure
\ntrove of WP music videos.<\/p>\n

Newly-ensconced album opener “Another Thousand Years”
\nhas solid energy and real sweep to it, finding a happy medium
\nbetween the sweet melodic rock of Revolver<\/i> and the big-sky
\npunch of Cream. Its second cousin is “Til I Got You,” a sunny pop
\nconfection with ear-candy layered harmonies, something that John,
\nPaul and Brian Wilson might have written for Rubber
\nSoul<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Giving up his Beatles fetish for a few minutes,
\nWallinger goes Dylan on you with “Who Are You?”, a
\nmodern-culture-skewering rant that mocks everything it touches with
\nnear-lethal acidity. He isn’t entirely stuck in the late 60s,
\nthough. “Here Comes The Future” finds Wallinger layering bells and
\nfalsetto harmonies over a funk beat and muted, stabbing guitar
\nlines, just like The Artist Whose Name We Couldn’t Pronounce In The
\nNineties — who is of course himself probably the all-time leader
\nin retro-sound-thievery.<\/p>\n

A mid-disc highlight is “I Thought You Were A Spy,”
\nan essentially acoustic number that nonetheless builds up a nice
\nhead of steam toward the finish, and features Wallinger doing such
\na good Mick on the vocals that I feared for a minute he might
\naccidentally break into a chorus of “Wild Horses.” Late in the
\ngame, the Dylan influence returns with the tongue-in-cheek wordplay
\nof “You’re A Hurricane, I’m A Caravan.”<\/p>\n

Enough of spot-the-influence, though. Wallinger
\nwrites original songs with a distinct voice, one that strikes a
\nsmart, clear-eyed balance between cynicism and belief, idealism and
\ndisgust. As the album title backhandedly acknowledges, Wallinger’s
\nlyrics invariably both entertain and challenge, which speaks well
\nof his choice to keep the music feeling somewhat familiar and
\naccessible.<\/p>\n

It’s very much too bad this album didn’t get a decent
\nshot upon its first release six years ago. Let’s not let that
\nhappen again, shall we?<\/p>\n

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