Published on May 11, 2004
In many ways,
Flirtin’ With Disaster, the sophomore release from
Jacksonville, Florida’s own Molly Hatchet, was a continuation of
their self-titled debut from the year before. Very little, indeed,
had changed — the three-guitar attack a la Lynyrd Skynyrd was
still there, their blues-based roots were still very much in
evidence, and they still were catchy as hell. (If anything, the
overall production of this disc was a tad tighter — even working
from my battered old vinyl copy, I can hear a little more crispness
to the sound than I did with
Molly Hatchet.)
Yet for all of its successes — and this record has many of them
—
Flirtin’ With Disaster is a tiny step backward for Danny Joe
Brown and company. While they do find themselves taking a few more
chances with their music than they did on their debut, the overall
sense of the disc is that, while it’s very enjoyable, it doesn’t do
quite enough to build up Molly Hatchet’s case to become the next
leader of the Southern Rock throne.
Now, this may make it sound like I disliked this album. Not so.
For one thing, they take a chance by selecting a cover version of
“It’s All Over Now” and absolutely making it their own. I’ve
listened to this disc in its entirety several times over the last
few days, and this particular song never ceases to put a smile on
my face. In a sense, it’s almost like Molly Hatchet rises above the
Southern Rock label and just tackles the challenge of being a rock
band — and that’s admirable.
Likewise, “Boogie No More” is a truly challenging song, yet one
that is well worth the listener’s time and effort. The entire band
is put through the paces on this one, even undergoing a slight
style shift at one point, but they never miss a beat or make it
sound like an unnatural occurrence. Interestingly enough, I’d much
prefer to hear a track like “Boogie No More” on the radio than
“Flirtin’ With Disaster,” arguably Molly Hatchet’s best-known
song.
Flirtin’ With Disaster contains many such moments — “One
Man’s Pleasure” has a distinct Allman Brothers feel to it, and
“Jukin’ City” is just a fun track to listen to — all of which show
that Molly Hatchet had been doing their homework and were working
on refining their sound. Maybe that’s why when they fall back on
songs that could have easily been on their debut disc that a little
air is let out of the balloon.
Case in point: the opening track “Whiskey Man,” which,
regrettably, does sound a little like a Skynyrd cast-off. Likewise,
tracks such as “Gunsmoke” and “Long Time” don’t really pack the
punch that they should have had, while “Let The Good Times Roll”
has the feel of a re-treaded “Trust Your Old Friend” — namely, it
has the feel of being an album-closer in both design and
energy.
All of this, though, doesn’t really dissipate the energy that
the bulk of
Flirtin’ With Disaster has, and the disc does prove to be a
worthy enough follow-up to Molly Hatchet’s debut effort. The band’s
greatest challenge, though, was still facing them – namely, the
fact that Southern Rock was fading in popularity.