But not so's I pull out Warming Up to the Ice Age or Two Bit Monsters. "She Said the Same Things to Me" and "It Hasn't Happened Yet" are winning answers to the wimmin question, and every time they come up I feel like I love this male chauvinist victim. Y'All Caught?: The Ones That Got Away 1979-1985 And the mean stuff he's always been best at-a roving couple who shoot up an automatic teller for laundromat change, a roving couple who steal one of Elvis's Cadillacs, a guy who cheats the world just like his daddy did-has a properly rowdy edge. Anyway, the high-grade country fodder-"Is Anybody There?" to a woman who loves him, "Georgia Rae" to a newborn daughter, and so forth-goes down easier. B-Ĭut with his road band rather than a select cast of studio heavies, which probably took some pressure off a perpetual comer who turns the juice up too high when he gets nervous. Well-written though it may be, most of this is Ronnie Milsap's kind of thing. But now more than ever he seems to derive his idea of good and greasy from, I don't know, Joe Cocker, which only works when he makes nasty. "I don't think Ronnie Milsap's gonna ever/Record this song," moans the wandering pro on the lead cut, which announces his intention to go get "good and greasy" in Memphis before subjecting himself to "one more heartfelt steel guitar chord" in the Music City he calls home. He still cracks wise while rolling out the hooks, but the sprightly feel of Riding With the King has given way to a soulish hard rock that suggests he's satirizing all these bitter macho men in the first person because satire isn't the main idea. A-Ĭommercial failure hasn't touched Hiatt's devotion to craft, but it's been hell on his sense of humor. The tenderest is called "She Loves the Jerk." And of course the jerk ain't John. But in the end this is his best album because the songs are so much his catchiest and pithiest. Singing is my guess-just like Ry, he's immersed himself in the mannerisms of soul without enjoying access to its physical substance. With well-respected albums on three major labels and boosters from Three Dog Night to Ry Cooder, Hiatt must be doing something wrong. The veteran up-and-comer as overblown cynic. Median cut length is up from 2:55 (on 1979's Slug Line) to 3:31, Tony Visconti has dehumanized Hiatt's uncommercial voice with filters that make him sound like a Hoosier Steve Strange, and even his cover photo has been reduced to benday dots. BĬarpers have always claimed there was nothing underneath his gift for the hook, and now that Hiatt's finally gotten his big shot, on David G.'s label with David B.'s producer, he seems intent on proving it. And when Hiatt is penetrable, which is also usually, his cleverness varies. Still, a lyric like "Back to the War," which sounds bitterly political and was probably inspired by an errant lover or business associate, makes me think twice, as does the impenetrable "New Numbers." When Costello is impenetrable, which is usually, he makes it look clever. Stupid that they're comparing this perennial future cult hero to Elvis C.-Hiatt beat Costello to his voice, such as it is, by four years. He's focused his changeable voice up around the high end and straightened out his always impressive melodies, but he has a weakness for the shallow (if sincere) putdown, e.g.: "You're too dumb to have a choice." Or else he'd get chosen, do you think he means? Lene Lovich: should cover "You're My Love Interest." B+ This hard-working young pro may yet turn into an all-American Elvis C. But I insist that anyone who can declaim about killing an ant with his guitar "underneath romantic Indiana stars" deserves a shot at leading man status in Fort Wayne. I even admit that he has a voice many would consider worse than no voice at all (although that's one of the charms of the type). And I admit that this one tends to go soft when he tries to go poetic. I admit to a weakness for loony lyrical surrealist protest rockers. Reassuring too that one of the resulting songs can be released as a single by Three Dog Night. Reassuring to hear the heartland Americana of the Band actually inspire a heartlander. Hiatt is a Midwestern boy who wrings off-center rock and roll out of a voice with lots of range, none of it homey. Greatest Hits: The A&M Years '87-'94 *. Y'All Caught?: The Ones That Got Away 1979-1985 B+.
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