according to Lynch<\/a>) members of the band had been indulging in many of the unhealthy habits one associates with the phrase \u201chit single in the early \u201980s.\u201d<\/p>\nSinger-songwriter Kihn had come up through the Bay Area club scene, with Wright and Lynch by his side from very early days, adding original GKB guitarist Dave Carpender and then Phillips as the band\u2019s retrophile power-pop graduated to bigger halls and bigger recording budgets. They\u2019d scored a #15 hit with 1981\u2019s \u201cThe Breakup Song (They Don\u2019t Write \u2019Em)\u201d and then \u201cJeopardy\u201d catapulted them into national headliner status.<\/p>\n
Success can be a blessing, or a curse, or sometimes both at the same time. \u201cJeopardy\u201d helped Kihn and band achieve the kind of commercial success they\u2019d been chasing for most of a decade\u2014success that appears to have doomed the band.<\/p>\n
The first thing to say about the music found on Kihntagious is that the \u201cJeopardy\u201d influence is strong and obvious, with greater emphasis on keyboards and the rhythm section, and less on guitars. There\u2019s even another clavinet-driven number (the ironically-named \u201cRock\u201d) sitting in the same second position \u201cJeopardy\u201d held on Kihnspiracy<\/i>, but for all its assets\u2014chiefly a solid groove and bassline\u2014it\u2019s no \u201cJeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of the rest of the album feels like it suffers under the same weight of expectations and anxiety. Album opener \u201cReunited\u201d was designed to be a thematic sequel \u201cJeopardy\u201d (they got back together), but is very different sonically, a driving rocker fueled by churning rhythm guitar; it has momentum going for it, but there\u2019s an essential ingredient missing: joy. \u201cRock\u201d follows, feeling like a second-tier retread, and then \u201cMake Up\u201d arrives with a nod to Kihn\u2019s early-\u201960s affections; if only the bouncy bassline wasn\u2019t thoroughly undermined by the cheesy synth tones.<\/p>\n
\u201cStand Together\u201d is one of the stronger cuts here, a guitar-and-drums anthem with abundant drive and a strong Kihn-Wright-Lynch vocal arrangement. Unfortunately, it\u2019s followed by one of the weakest. Kihn\u2019s recurring Achilles heel was a thing for reggae; it pops up on many of his albums and never quite works. On this album\u2019s \u201cConfrontation Music,\u201d he gives it a dark cast for an anti-war number that just feels like a jumble of incompatible ideas and awful keyboard tones.<\/p>\n
The album\u2019s keyboard focus undermines the next four tracks pretty thoroughly. \u201cOne Thing About Love\u201d is the best of this bunch, an intense, bass-driven r&b number where the strong rhythm section feels out of sync tonally with the crinkly Douglass guitar and cheesy keys. Kihn gets earnest on \u201cWorst That Could Happen,\u201d whose chorus harmonies are its main redeeming quality. \u201cTrouble With The Girl\u201d is every \u201980s pop clich\u00e9 crammed into a single track, exceeded only by the album\u2019s requisite cover \u201cCheri Baby,\u201d a horror show of chirpy synths and tinny drums. <\/p>\n
Thankfully, they finish up with two of this album\u2019s best. \u201cHard Times,\u201d a Kihn-Lynch-Wright cowrite, is a throwback to the kind of early-rock homage the GKB always excelled at, featuring an urgent rhythm section, counterpoint vocals from Lynch on the choruses, and a tight, pushing Douglass solo. Similarly retrophile closer \u201cWork, Work, Work\u201d\u2014a rocking rant that feels directed at the band\u2019s own exhaustion\u2014is played in the full-tilt style of earlier rave-ups like \u201cCold Hard Cash\u201d from 1978\u2019s Next Of Kihn<\/i>. In its own way, it makes for both a nice callback and fitting end to the classic era of the Greg Kihn Band.<\/p>\n
While Kihn blamed the album\u2019s failure on lack of label support\u2014certainly a factor\u2014it\u2019s also true that Kihntagious<\/i> is a decidedly mixed bag, with a handful of strong songs and Wright\u2019s consistently punchy bass work its only real highlights. On the tour supporting the album, the band began to fray at the seams, with rock and roll excess, exhaustion and egos all playing a role. By the time Kihn returned with solo album Citizen Kihn<\/i> a year later, Lynch and Phillips were gone and the Band era was in Kihn\u2019s rearview mirror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7947],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-47180","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-greg-kihn-band","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47180","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=47180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51651,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47180\/revisions\/51651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47180"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47180"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}