I\u2019ve always had a soft spot for larger-than-life, over-the-top artistic types\u2014just ask my wife. The only time this had real-world consequences was when I was once impulsive enough to go into business with a trio of rather extreme examples of the species; lesson learned. Leaving that experience aside, though, the appeal remains clear: constant stimulation, endless entertainment, thoroughly unleashed imagination, at-times-riotous fun.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
All of which is to say\u2014to paraphrase my dry wit of a son\u2014\u201chey there Spottiswoode.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you mixed the laconic, cheeky British cool of Ian Hunter with the brooding urbanity of Leonard Cohen, added the balls-out Broadway showmanship of Bat Out Of Hell<\/i> composer Jim Steinman, and sprinkled it all with the self-deprecating panache of James Bond, you might emerge with Jonathan Spottiswoode\u2019s less interesting twin brother, because he\u2019s clearly more demented than that.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The latest outing from Spottiswoode & His Enemies, the aptly named Wild Goosechase Expedition<\/i>, veers off in several directions at once, setting the listener\u2019s musical compass spinning in circles. This troupe of seven makes a noise together that is uniquely their own, a sort of twisted urban folk music full of dry, acerbic wit and fat horn arrangements. And yet, each individual track is remarkably distinct, with its own sound, vibe and rhythms.<\/p>\n
Kickoff cut \u201cBeautiful Monday\u201d sets the tone right away with a breezy, sing-songy ode to manic self-confidence: \u201cBeautiful morning \/ Beautiful day \/ Beautiful people \/ On a beautiful train \/ All goin\u2019 to work now \/ So du-ti-fully \/ Beautiful Monday \/ Beautiful me\u2026 Everybody look at me \/ Take another look at me \/ I\u2019m beautiful.\u201d\u00a0 Meanwhile, a rather Van Morrison-esque lilting-guitar arrangement executes a steady build to a horn-aided crescendo that feels completely inevitable. Tunes like the character-defining \u201cMonday\u201d and the seductive, uber-urbane \u201cJust A Word I Use\u201d ooze a kind of easy charm and swagger that\u2019s rare and thoroughly engaging.<\/p>\n
In between that notable pair, you get the playful barroom thumper \u201cHappy Or Not,\u201d the melodramatic, gospel-tinged \u201cPurple River Yellow Sun,\u201d and the alternately smoky and apocalyptic \u201cAll In The Past.\u201d\u00a0 The common thread throughout this memorable opening sequence is that the arrangements are just exquisite. The sheer versatility of the seven-piece Enemies gives Spottiswoode the ability to match each arrangement to the vibe of the song precisely and spectacularly. Each track is its own little painting, with each brushstroke exactly where it should be.<\/p>\n
For track number six, Spottiswoode essays the height of romantic sacrifice: \u201cI\u2019d Even Follow You To Philadelphia.\u201d\u00a0 And plays it up like a barroom weeper, sounding like a cross between Joe Cocker and W.C. Fields. \u201cI\u2019d go through any kind of hell for you \/ I\u2019d even follow you to Philadelphia.\u201d It\u2019s simply brilliant; how else to describe a song that makes you laugh out loud even as it\u2019s grooving up a storm?<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes\u201d plays out like a down and dirty Chicago soul-ified version of George Thorogood; J. Geils would love it.\u00a0 \u201cChariot\u201d revels in a gorgeous, languorous melody through its latter sections, nicely setting up the curmudgeonly rant that is \u201cAll Gone Wrong.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cProblem Child\u201d arrives as more or less the polar opposite of the AC\/DC song by the same name, with tinkly piano, jazzy brushed drums, and Spottiswoode taking the role of the clueless parents attempting to adore their thoroughly entitled offspring into compliance. \u201cProblem child, please forgive us \/ We know you\u2019ve been through hell \/ Remember, we love you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
From there the album only get more giddily weird. \u201cHappy Where I Am\u201d is a gospel shouter with a fat horn section, and the title track feels a Dixieland band on acid. The terribly British, terribly fatalistic insouciance of \u201cWake Me When It\u2019s Over\u201d sounds very much like Ian Hunter in one of his sassier moods, declaring with deadpan certainty that \u201cAll the great men were just like me \/ Though most of them were creeps \/ They made their mark on history \/ While they were asleep.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The closing pair are an interesting duo as well. \u201cWonderful Surprise\u201d is a smoky barroom ballad with a bit of Sinatra to it; Spottiswoode is nothing if not hip, and this tune positively swings. By contrast, \u201cYou Won\u2019t Forget Your Dream\u201d has a suitably dreamy, elegiac quality; it\u2019s perfectly pleasant but does go on a bit as you get into the second half of its 9:07 girth.<\/p>\n
By the by, the track listing divides these tunes into four acts, the melodramatic titles of which appear to have little to do with the content of the songs themselves, which carry no detectably consistent narrative. Of course, for an iconoclast like Spottiswoode, this sort of affectation comes off as simply further evidence of attention to detail. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, you either get swept up in Spottiswoode\u2019s peculiar yet robust creative vision, or you don\u2019t. Wild Goosechase Expedition<\/i> is both a big shaggy dog of an album and as sleek as a Maserati. Climb in and take her for a spin, won\u2019t you? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7190],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-42456","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-spottiswoode-and-his-enemies","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42456","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42456"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}