“Casual Gods” was the second solo album by Jerry Harrison.
With Talking Heads having split, guitarist Jerry Harrison released his second solo effort with 1988's “Casual Gods”. In addition to playing guitar, keyboards, and singing, Harrison also produced the release which featured players like Bernie Worrel on keyboards and Chris Spedding and Robbie McIntosh playing guitar. Harrison's vocals have a quality similar to David Byrne and the music is reminiscent of “Fear of Music”-era Talking Heads. "Rev It Up" was an AOR hit and deservedly so. The song lives up to its name with a funky, loose groove, snaky guitar, and throbbing bass.
However, the album is hardly a clone of "Tongues". Guitar parts are as prominent as keyboards in the sound. And the lyrical topics are far darker than the whimsy of then-recent TH albums: mercenaries ("Cherokee Chief"), disappearance and suicide ("Bobby), depression("Let it Come Down"), less-than-happy relationships ("I'm Still Running", "Breakdown in the Passing Lane"). The lyrics are always thoughtful and intelligent, almost like little film noir tales. At the same time, the music is very catchy and danceable. Jerry's voice is rather limited in range and a bit colorless, sort of like Lou Reed's, and occasionally hard to hear, but effective despite this (again, like Reed).
The outstanding tracks are the hypnotic ballads "Let it Come Down" and "Man with a Gun" (the latter from the movie "Something Wild"), the rocker "Cherokee Chief" (which got a bit of airplay) and "Rev it Up", especially. The album's single, this cruising song is more extroverted than the rest of the album. But the album as a whole is really listenable until the end, which contains two versions of "Bobby" the second a remix which wears out its welcome before it 7 minutes are up. The album, on a whole, though, was unfairly overlooked, and deserved a second chance from TH fans as well as people who like a some thinking along with their dancing.
With Talking Heads having split, guitarist Jerry Harrison released his second solo effort with 1988's “Casual Gods”. In addition to playing guitar, keyboards, and singing, Harrison also produced the release which featured players like Bernie Worrel on keyboards and Chris Spedding and Robbie McIntosh playing guitar. Harrison's vocals have a quality similar to David Byrne and the music is reminiscent of “Fear of Music”-era Talking Heads. "Rev It Up" was an AOR hit and deservedly so. The song lives up to its name with a funky, loose groove, snaky guitar, and throbbing bass.
However, the album is hardly a clone of "Tongues". Guitar parts are as prominent as keyboards in the sound. And the lyrical topics are far darker than the whimsy of then-recent TH albums: mercenaries ("Cherokee Chief"), disappearance and suicide ("Bobby), depression("Let it Come Down"), less-than-happy relationships ("I'm Still Running", "Breakdown in the Passing Lane"). The lyrics are always thoughtful and intelligent, almost like little film noir tales. At the same time, the music is very catchy and danceable. Jerry's voice is rather limited in range and a bit colorless, sort of like Lou Reed's, and occasionally hard to hear, but effective despite this (again, like Reed).
The outstanding tracks are the hypnotic ballads "Let it Come Down" and "Man with a Gun" (the latter from the movie "Something Wild"), the rocker "Cherokee Chief" (which got a bit of airplay) and "Rev it Up", especially. The album's single, this cruising song is more extroverted than the rest of the album. But the album as a whole is really listenable until the end, which contains two versions of "Bobby" the second a remix which wears out its welcome before it 7 minutes are up. The album, on a whole, though, was unfairly overlooked, and deserved a second chance from TH fans as well as people who like a some thinking along with their dancing.
Track listing
01. "Rev It Up" (Jerry Harrison, John Sieger, Ernie Brooks) - 4:17
02. "Song of Angels" (Jerry Harrison) - 3:35
03. "Man With A Gun" (Jerry Harrison) - 4:35
04. "Let It Come Down" (Jerry Harrison) - 4:52
05. "Cherokee Chief" (Jerry Harrison, Ernie Brooks) - 4:30
06. "A Perfect Lie" (Jerry Harrison, Arthur Russell, Ernie Brooks) - 4:25
07. "Are You Running?" (Jerry Harrison, Ernie Brooks, Monique Dayan) - 4:20
08. "Breakdown in the Passing Lane" (Jerry Harrison) - 4:37
09. "A.K.A. Love" (Jerry Harrison, Ernie Brooks) - 4:10
10. "We're Always Talking" ( Jerry Harrison, Ernie Brooks) - 4:40
11. "Bobby" (Jerry Harrison, Ernie Brooks) - 4:03
12. "Bobby" (Extended Mix) (Jerry Harrison, Ernie Brooks) - 6:58
Credits
Jerry Harrison – guitar, keyboards, vocals
Alex Weir, Chris Spedding, Robbie McIntosh - guitar
Bernie Worrell - keyboards
Rick Jaeger, David Van Tieghem, Yogi Horton - drums, percussion
Dickie Landry - horns
Arlene Holmes, Lovelace Richmond, Monique Dayan, Arthur Russell - background vocals
Engineer – David Vartanian
Producer [Assistant] – Ernie Brooks
Producer - Jerry Harrison
Notes
Released: February, 1988
Recorded at: D.V. Recording, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Sigma Sound, New York, NY
Genre: Rock
Length: 55:54
Label: Sire/Warner Bros. Records (USA)/ Fontana Records (UK & Europe)
© 1988
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