Surely there are some people left in the world who think that art has its time and place and has to be appreciated through the lens of the times, lets face it there’s so much revisionist shit going on in the world at the moment future generations are likely to have a very one-sided and redacted view of the past.
For the most part I hate change for change sake – if something is of artistic merit it should be looked after and appreciated for the art itself, in context of course, as few works of art are timeless. With music though I usually take a rather contrary approach. I don’t think revisiting the past is necessarily wrong especially if you’re the artist who recorded the music in the first place. In reality though it doesn’t often turnout well does it?
It’s obvious why of course- we all build those emotional ties to what we’ve loved in the past – it’s called nostalgia and whilst revisiting a ‘classic album’ is rather different to an artist just creating new music you often can’t help yourself wonder if the artist (especially when they’re as prolific Mr Lynch is) really wanted to do it or if it just came down to a good dollar offer to fool around with a few songs they have lived with for years.
I have a copy of Wicked Sensation on vinyl and of course and it’s been given a bashing over the years, I replaced it with a CD years later and I never steam anything so this is the first time I’ve actually listened to the songs digitally. So now we get to the whole ‘re-recording’ versus ‘re-imagining’ issue and for me its pretty important. Plenty or artist who don’t own the rights to their own songs re-record in the same spirit as the original for financial reasons, and like any good cover song re-imagining you hope is a little more than that, and hopefully something more than just the ‘acoustic treatment’ fad we had in the early 90’s when ‘Wicked Sensation’ was released.
Well ‘Wicked Sensation’ is certainly re-imagined. As the press says – “The twelve-track album, originally released in October 1990, is considered by many to be sacred and perfect the way it was. The idea of recording it was not something Oni Logan or George Lynch took lightly. “The term ‘re-record’ makes me cringe, this is not that,” explains Lynch. “We re-invented the wheel on this record. It’s really a different animal than the original! Fans won’t be disappointed!” Logan adds: “30 years later here we are celebrating the first song I penned and wrote for the band Lynch Mob ‘Wicked Sensation.’ This one’s for the fans that have been there from the beginning! My recommendation is to listen to it loud!!”
Not only that this will actually be the VERY LAST record under the name Lynch Mob. Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio chatted to George earlier in the month and was asked about new material but stated that there had been a chance of a new record but it hadn’t happened and added “You know, I think with this record, this is our swan song. I think this would be a good place to exit the stage.’ We’ve created this bookend — answer to the first record.” “The name itself, of course, has always been problematic, and now it’s inexcusable to keep the name. So, things have just sort of all conspired. A lot of different events triangulated to this point where it just makes sense on every single level to just let it go and wrap it up with and nice neat bow with this record and move on.“
Whatever you thoughts on whether people should be offended by a phrase coined a few hundred years ago that is of course up to you but to me it’s just disappointing that the band is effectively no more.
The big question is of course is this a fitting epitaph? That is actually a more difficult question to answer than I anticipated and one that first made me revisit the original album first.
Shall we look at the album now?
Well we start off nicely enough with a laid back, slightly funky Hendrixy take on ‘Wicked Sensation’ which was always my favourite of the songs on the original album and we get takes on all twelve here in the original order. The song isn’t of course intended to be an improvement on the original and indeed loses a lot of the immediacy of the original recording,but its nice enough.
The issue I always have with e-recording and covers of course is why would you play the new version rather tan the original that you grew up and bonded with and I guess here its similar to the reason you might listen to an acoustic version now and again- it’s not there to replace the original song, its there to confirm your love of the song.
‘River of Love’ is very good, a little more laid back, smokier and bluesier it’s a nice listen. And that’s really what you get here great music replayed by great musicians with different arrangement. ‘Sweet Sister Mercy’ that follows has a nice swagger and some great harmonies, there are plenty more that have you similarly smiling.
‘All I Want’ ups the blues and I’ll be honest its not a song I’ve played a lot over the years but I love this one and Oni sounds like a young Coverdale hitting those highs! It’s certainly one of my favourite reworkings.
As on the original record those are the real highs along with the classic ‘She’s Evil But She’s Mine’ curiously re-titled ‘She’s So Evil’ on my review copy, it’s a song that sounds awesome here, maybe Logan’s best new vocal. Then there’s the smoking hot ‘No Bed of Roses’ re-imagined here as a bright and breezy Bluesy rocker with soaring harmonies; and the ballad ‘Through These Eyes’ one of the weak tracks on the original but with more emotion here.
We close in style too ‘For a Million Years’ which always had that Dokken sound for me and closer ‘Street Fighting Man’ which has a really wicked bass-led groove here.
I didn’t think Id be rating this one as highly but it’s worth it! And god forbid if you are new to the band this is one of the albums of the era given a nice new workout – get out and find both versions now!
8.5/10
