One of the hallmarks of my music listening back in the late \u201970s and early \u201980s (e.g. high school and college) is that I often favored one side of an album heavily over the other. Just ask Next Of Kihn<\/i>, the third album from the Bay Area\u2019s own Greg Kihn and band\u2014if my copy of the album could speak, the grooves on side one would have clear bragging rights over the ones on side two. Sorry \/ not sorry?<\/p>\n
With the group\u2019s lineup now solidified as Kihn (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Steve Wright (bass, harmony vocals), Larry Lynch (drums, harmony vocals) and Dave Carpender (lead guitar)\u2014to the point where the album following this one would rechristen them as the Greg Kihn Band\u2014they delivered one of the strongest albums<\/s> sides of their young career. Electing to forego the cover tunes that had been featured on both previous albums, and would continue to pop up for the rest of the band\u2019s run, the band recorded a clean slate of eight Kihn compositions for Next Of Kihn<\/i>, a strategy that resulted in longer individual songs, a shorter overall run time, and mixed results both musically and on the business end.<\/p>\n
The band tears into tight, driving 2:40 opener \u201cCold Hard Cash,\u201d a pure hoot of a garage rocker that features all four guys playing with abandon as Kihn attempts to collect from a reluctant employer: \u201cGimme my money \/ Cold Hard Cash \/ Why you actin\u2019 so funny? \/ Don\u2019t be rash \/ Just gimme gimme my money \/ Cold Hard Cash.\u201d The grin hasn\u2019t had a chance to fall from your face before they launch headlong into \u201cMuseum,\u201d another cheeky rocker with an infectious sing-along chorus and muscular, memorable Carpender solo.<\/p>\n
After two straight thumping rockers, the band takes a hard left for \u201cRemember,\u201d an extended, airy 6:30 jam that\u2019s all atmosphere, featuring Carpender\u2019s clean, searching electric lead over Kihn\u2019s elaborately picked acoustic rhythm. Lynch anchors the song in a complex, loping-yet-stutter-stepping beat, with Wright holding out for a full minute before coming in with both a laser-sighted bassline and breathy harmony vocals. Out front, Kihn matches one of his strongest lyrics with an outstanding lead vocal performance that\u2019s as restrained as \u201cCold Hard Cash\u201d is raucous. Lynch says<\/a> there\u2019s \u201cmagic\u201d in this recording, and it\u2019s hard to argue; the song is not just the best on the album but among the best of Kihn\u2019s career.<\/p>\n Side one closes with another rocker, the energetic yet mysterious \u201cChinatown,\u201d complete with fireworks both figurative (Carpender\u2019s fiery solo) and literal (exploding firecrackers) at the close. If only that momentum had carried over to the flip side\u2026<\/p>\n Side two opener \u201cSorry\u201d feels like a step backwards, a rather lightweight bit of retro guitar-pop that would have fit better on the previous year\u2019s Greg Kihn Again<\/i>. The similarly flavored \u201cEverybody Else\u201d goes for lilting melancholy but ends up feeling like a bland pastiche of better songs. \u201cUnderstander\u201d paints in darker colors, featuring haunting layered harmonies out of a mid-\u201960s Hollies album for the first three minutes before devolving into a heavier coda that again features the four players grooving hard together while Carpender solos on top. Closer \u201cSecret Meetings\u201d follows suit tonally with a heavy mid-tempo attack from the start, going for a dark and anxious vibe that\u2019s evocative without ever going anywhere special. <\/p>\n Next Of Kihn<\/i> ends up feeling like half a great album, with the four excellent songs clustered on side one followed by another four that misfire as often as they click. What\u2019s consistent from start to finish is the way the four players lock in together, their musical intuition and harmony attack honed by two straight years of steady touring. Beginning with their group\u2019s next album this unit would be known as the Greg Kihn Band, and deservedly so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10734],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46347","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-greg-kihn","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46347","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=46347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46347"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}