Walking in London
| Walking in London | ||||
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| Studio album by Concrete Blonde | ||||
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Publication |
March 10, 1992 |
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| Label (s) | IRS Records / EMI Electrola | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
43:59 |
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| occupation |
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Concrete Blonde, Chris Tsangarides |
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Studio (s) |
Groove Masters, Santa Monica |
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Walking in London is the fourth album by the American alternative rock band Concrete Blonde . Drummer Harry Rushakoff had returned after a discussion with Johnette Napolitano and replaced the Englishman Paul Thompson, who had repeatedly had problems with the immigration authorities and thus caused stress for the band. The original line-up of Concrete Blonde was now back together.
Guest musician
Tom Petersson ( Cheap Trick ) added to the bass recordings to an unknown extent . Andy Prieboy ( Wall of Voodoo ) sang backing vocals . The French sentences in Les Cœurs Jumeaux were spoken by Bernadette Colomine from the duo The Apache Dancers, who were under contract with the same IRS sub-label. Later, in return, Napolitano and Mankey will be available to Colomine as guest musicians on another project.
Track list
- Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man (Johnette Napolitano) - 3:50
- Walking in London (Johnette Napolitano) - 6:42
- Les Cœurs Jumeaux (Johnette Napolitano) - 4:14
- Woman to Woman (Johnette Napolitano) - 4:28
- Why Don't You See Me (Johnette Napolitano) - 4:31
- City Screaming (Johnette Napolitano) - 4:00
- Someday? (Johnette Napolitano) - 3:30
- I Wanna Be Your Friend Again (Johnette Napolitano) - 5:17
- ... Long Time Ago (Johnette Napolitano) - 2:14
- It's a Man's World ( James Brown , Betty Jean Newsome) - 4:56
Song info
After the completion, Napolitano complained that she had composed the new songs all by herself, that the bandmates had not contributed anything to the songwriting. She assured Billboard that with this album she had freed herself from accusations of making “suicide music”.
The first single, Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man, is a "lascivious rockabilly - parody of the oldies Ghost Riders in the Sky " (which the band has even performed live). The sung-about spirit harassed Napolitano one night on a tour with Sting in Texas . He floated around the hotel room, opened the closet doors and turned on the light switch.
After a physically strenuous tour, Napolitano had lived with friends in London for almost a year and enjoyed being able to reach other countries so unusually quickly. The third single Walking in London refers to this regeneration phase . Nevertheless, the lyrical self (identical to the real Napolitano) does not manage to get rid of the thought of the ex-boyfriend, no matter where, no matter how remote from America. The narrative method is strikingly similar to that of Over Your Shoulder from the debut album, only that the roles are reversed, which means that the protagonist now feels the imaginary presence instead of being the frightening ghost herself.
The laundry slip for the album reads: “And Why Don't You See Me tells the story of a messed-up two-way relationship in ballad-like, pensive tones.” The Napolitano theme of “unhappy love” also flashes several times on this album, just not anymore as rumbling as before.
City Screaming is - like Roses Grow before - underlaid with street noise. The subject is the unpleasant cityscape, for example the bang you can hear through the window and the consideration of whether it was a gunshot or a car accident. It ties in with the previous critical views of the city ( Still in Hollywood is the other) and is actually aimed at the love-hate relationship of Los Angeles and not a processed London impression. Only Mexican Moon will contain an implied declaration of love to LA ( Close to Home ).
The second single Someday? , musically in the style of the chart success Joey , the subject.
The implementation of the idea of an abandoned woman who pretends on the phone to her ex that she is fine, which however in no way corresponds to the facts, is such that in I Wanna Be Your Friend Again the left channel lets you hear the pronounced sentences, " while the other channel comments, criticizes and scratches empty phrases. "
With It's a Man's World (actually: It's a Man's Man's Man's World ), Napolitano transforms a soul classic into a flawless blues and "puts more bite into the lines than the aged soul chauvi" James Brown .
Artwork
Since Free - Artwork and Happy Birthday -Video equipment Napolitano had taken a fancy to Anne Sperling, who could therefore ran again. The layout and style of the cover have been retained. The fluttering tapes above and below, which announce the band name and the album title, are thus a variation of the free template, even the sun and moon, now nestled close together, again complement the temporary logo in the middle . The actual cover motif is depicted between the banners: a theater stage with an expressionist London set . The three band members are in it. Napolitano is just gathering her costume , the Mankey wearing a dark gala livery with a golden flourish pattern holds a blazing sun face in his hand and Rushakoff wearing a light livery with horizontal branch-like appliqués reaching to the hem holds a sleeping full moon.
The CD insert is not a booklet , but a leaflet. Unfolded, you get an enlarged section of the stage in black and white , without actors . On the reverse side you can see square colored details of the cover scene (the sun, the moon), but also props that do not come from the cover (the Concrete-Blonde trademarks “Spielkarte” and “Rose”, for example) together with “holy” portraits the musician.
Half- length photos of them are on the back cover above the track list . Mankey is shown on the left, in a dark livery with a candlestick , in the middle a Napolitano in her stage costume, sadly folding her hands, on the right the "servant" Rushakoff holding a chain-wrapped metal heart. With the otherwise completely identical front and back cover layout, the images of Mankey and Rushakoff have switched sides on the LP back cover .
The CD single Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man shows a still life in the form of a disorder on a shelf, in which, in addition to a boot, a guitar, a filled glass and other things, the symbols “playing cards” and “roses " Pop up.
reception
Martin Scholz wrote in the Frankfurter Rundschau : “The American seems looser, roars energetically through her compact mixture of rough rock, blues and punk quotes, which she holds together with soulful grooves. It picks up where it left off with bloodletting two years ago , only today it sounds rather snotty to cheerful, instead of gloomy and melancholy. "
The metal star praised the “very idiosyncratic style”, which had “become a bit more accessible”, described individual pieces below and conceded 8.5 out of 10 possible points.
In Musikexpress came walking in London not to, as read on the 14th place among 15 compared new releases. In the individual review, which ends with 3 out of 6 possible stars, it says: “[Napolitano] delivers an exalted dramatic vocal performance that challenges the listener every second.” But this is important because otherwise “ walking in London despite some brilliant riff and chorus ideas pretty colorless and arbitrary. "
The reviewer of the Audio highlighted the various stylistic forms and came to the conclusion: "That is the secret of the Californian trio around the power vocalist Johnette Napolitano [...]." In the rating scale, which ranges from 0 to 5 ear pictograms , the 4 ears assigned for “music” and “sound” mean a double “very good”.
Harald Kepler stated in stereo a "lively rock sound with a lot of bite" and "unusual song lyrics". His conclusion: "Diverse guitar rock brand Westcoast", which resulted in 8 out of 10 points for the music and the sound technology.
The customer magazine WOM Journal devoted a cover story to Concrete Blonde in May 1992 and praised Napolitano's “broad spectrum”: “[She] sometimes acts like a fury, only to act like a dreamy virgin."
Frank Keil preferred one side of the Napolitano spectrum in the Zillo : "I like Johnette Napolitano best with the quiet ballads like Why Don't You See Me , because that's where her exceptional voice really comes into its own."
The Internet platform Allmusic awarded 3 out of 5 stars.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Matthias Penzel : Concrete Blonde. Kamikaze course. In: Fachblatt Musikmagazin , No. 5/1992, pp. 48–49.
- ↑ a b c d e f Martin Scholz: Concrete Blonde on the Loreley Rock. "Walking In London": Johnette Napolitano and Band . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , April 4, 1992.
- ↑ Jim Bessman: Concrete Blonde Lightens Up, And Shows A Harder Edge . In: Billboard , March 21, 1992.
- ↑ a b reb: Witching hour . Concrete Blonde put a song memorial to a ghost . In: Audio , No. 5/1992, Audio plus p. 10.
- ↑ Barbara Stiller: Concrete Blonde: Our boss is a woman . In: WOM-Journal , No. 8/1992, p. 12.
- ↑ Laundry slip of Germany sales [EMI], 1/92.
- ↑ Olli [Kube]: Concrete Blonde. Walking in London . In: Metal Star , No. 5/1992, p. 65.
- ↑ MEET - Musical Inspection Agency . In: Musikexpress , No. 5/1992, p. 102.
- ↑ (cs): Concrete Blonde. Walking In London (EMI) . In: Musikexpress , No. 5/1992, p. 116.
- ↑ ch: Concrete Blonde. Walking in London . In: Audio , No. 4/1992, Audio plus p. 14.
- ↑ Harald Kepler: Concrete Blonde. Walking in London . In: Stereo , No. 5/1992, p. 91.
- ↑ MM: Concrete Blonde. Trio Infernal . In: WOM Journal , No. 5/1992, p. 6
- ↑ Frank Keil: Concrete Blonde. "Walking In London" (IRS / EMI Records) . In: Zillo , No. 5/1992.
- ↑ Walking in London at Allmusic (English)