Album Reviews
On the Wallflowers' debut album, frontman Jakob Dylan did exactly the things that would invite embarrassing comparisons with his icon of a father, Bob. There was the faux country drawl, the syllables held out for an eternity, the narrative array of sideshow characters and music dominated by a Hammond organ. Four years older and a whole lot wiser, the Wallflowers return with an eye-popping second album that casts their leader in a far better light.
Young Dylan's songwriting remains shaped by echoes, but here they come from some of his dad's other "children": The anthemic "One Headlight" carries a distinct Tom Petty-like urgency, and "Invisible City" may be the best song Bruce Springsteen hasn't written in years. There are still plenty of genetic imprints. "Josephine" turns on a chord change straight out of "Just Like a Woman," and lines like "I've learned to compromise good people for alibis" show that the apple continues to fall pretty close to the tree. This time out, that's a compliment. (RS 737)
BILLY ALTMAN
(Posted: Feb 2, 1998)
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- One Headlight
- 6Th Avenue Heartache
- Bleeders
- Three Marlenas
- The Difference
- Invisible City
- Laughing Out Loud
- Josephine
- God Don't Make Lonely Girls
- Angel On My Bike
- I Wish I Felt Nothing
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