Published on Sep 8, 2004
From afar, London’s Wildhearts are a band that I have always
kept a wary eye on. Everyone I know who has heard these guys swears
by them, but my taste of the material found on the band’s other
albums I own,
P.H.U.Q. and
Endless, Nameless (along with four or five bootleg gigs),
have always left me with a pretty bland impression. The fact that
Gearhead Records has released the Wildhearts’ first album stateside
(and made it relatively easy to find in stores) in over a decade
gives me reason to merit an opinion of the material found on the
band’s most recent release,
Riff After Riff, after making the tentative purchase.
Recycling a handful of tunes off of the Wildhearts’ 2002
Japanese release,
Riff After Riff After Motherfucking Riff, I find I can’t
help but snicker at what I’m hearing on a presumably neutered
derivative of that release. Maybe that’s not a fair thing for me to
do as the fretwork shared by Ginger is rather innovative and catchy
throughout a large part of the album but I just can’t get over the
fact that he oh-so-blatantly “recycles” another riff by way of the
Hellacopters hit “Soulseller” on the opening of “Action
Panzer.”
I guess this proves that long-haired rockers are just plain
dumb. Ripping off a riff from another band’s work is one thing, but
to do such a thing when that band is a contemporary of yours and
still includes the source song as a staple in their live set is
just criminal – if not sadly funny.
That gaffe aside,
Riff After Riff is a somewhat unique effort in today’s
musical rock n’ roll climate. Meaningful song arrangements set to a
background of momentum-changing guitar solos gives this album
refreshing appeal. Vocally speaking, Ginger could be confused as a
slightly more masculine version of Cheap Trick’s throat, Robin
Zander. Such an association screams songs with melody. That
assumption is fair as the songs on
Riff After Riff prove.
As such, my dilemma in assessing
Riff After Riff stems from the fact that I have always been
pained in listening to Cheap Trick for the sole reason of Zander’s
cheery vocals. By and large, you get such fuzzy sentiments on
Riff After Riff which only serves to contrast the healthy
dose of aggressive guitar riffing. Some of the more notable
shredding is found introducing the tracks “Lake Of Piss,” “Stormy
In The North, Karma In The South” and “Return To Zero,” which keep
those songs interesting. The extended aggression on “Return To
Zero” and “O.C.D.” attempt to alienate these tracks from the
overall feel good vibe that
Riff After Riff decidedly provides. From my perspective,
this is truly a good thing. From where I sit, these two notable
examples of continued manliness translate into two points for the
Wildhearts.
To the contrary, tracks including “Putting It On,” “Better Than
Cable” and “Bang!” offer little in the way of distraction from
those annoying happy choruses. There is nothing instrumental
happening in the triumvirate of songs that capture any lasting
interest in me and quite frankly it’s these moments that leave me
craving a spin and listen to one of those Hellacopters albums of
which I was earlier speaking.
The interviews and tour diaries Ginger has given us over the
years typecast him just short of being a major league crybaby for
the lack of worldwide success eluding the Wildhearts over the last
decade. After listening to
Riff After Riff, all I can say is that if London’s
flavor-of-the-day, the Darkness, can headline tours on multiple
continents, maybe Ginger does actually have a legitimate beef. This
doesn’t mean that I have to love the band or even this album, but
even I’ll admit the Wildhearts are capable of churning out songs
that have the ability to capture mass appeal.