Michael Hall & The Woodpeckers – Lucky Too
Third song in and you’re nailed: The clumsily (but wonderfully) named “Sometimes I Wish I’d Never Heard The Rolling Stones” swaggers and throbs like its titular archetype, all sirloin riffs, pounding 88s and serrated leads. Lyrically, the tune’s equally inspiring, as universally autobiographical as some of Ian Hunter’s paeans to the muse; Hall, reflecting on his youthful “perfect blunder” of joining a band and surrendering his life to rock ‘n’ roll, concludes wryly, “The quieter the desperation, the louder the song.”
Hall (ex-Wild Seeds) is essentially picking up where 2000’s Dead By Dinner left off. As with that one, the best numbers are the rockingest, notably the “Mony Mony”-meets-Tom Petty “Four In The Morning” and the lascivious Faces/Stones thumper “Rub Me Honey”. It’s not a perfect record, and it may have been a strategic mistake to have the record commence with two midtempo numbers — the smoky soul of the title track and the jangly but slight “Wild And True” — as harried journalists and radio station MDs have been known to rush through stacks of new arrivals and accordingly overlook releases that commence in such low-key fashions.
That would be a pity in this instance, since they’d miss out on the aforementioned rockers as well as some sterling ballads and twisted blues, plus one thoroughly bizarre but compelling number written by Woodpecker bassist Brian Zoric (“Testify”, a slinky slab of psychedelic funk replete with wah-wah guitar and Prince-like falsetto vocals). Such eclecticism was also one quality that helped make the Wild Seeds so beloved, and it’s nice to know Hall can tap his roots even while he’s moving forward.