The Dream Syndicate:
Ghost Stories
ENIGMA ENVLP 506 LP/Cass/CD, Demon Records FIENDCD 170
Paul B. Cutler (g)
Mark Walton (b)
Dennis Duck (d)
with
Chris Cacavas (k)
Robert Lloyd (p)
N. Velvet (v)
Rob Stennett (g)
My Old Haunts
Loving The Sinner, Hating The Sin
Whatever You Please
Weathered And Torn
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
I Have Faith
Some Place Better Than This
Black
When The Curtain Falls
ME/S-Review
Mit GHOST STORIES will das Traum-Syndikat aus Los Angeles laut Mastermind Steve Wynn an seine Anfänge zum Jahreswechsel '81 /'82 erinnern. Straightes Schlagzeug, satte Bässe und kantige, scharf-schrille Gitarrenarbeit als Kontrast zu den schrammelnden, akustischen Rhythmusgitarren - ein ungeschöntes Klangbild, rauh und ungeschliffen, eine handfeste Basis für Geschichtenerzähler Wynn.Mitunter scheppern die Riffs ganz heftig, dann wieder entpuppt sich ein Song als Shanty. Wenn das Piano in den Mittelpunkt gerückt wird, geht es meist ruhiger, balladesker zu - wie etwa in "When The Curtain Falls" oder "Someplace Better Than This", einem modernen Gute-Nacht-Lied. In "Whatever You Please" erinnert Wynn gesanglich an Ray Davies, wie überhaupt The Dream Syndicate oft die einfache Genialität der Kinks erreicht.
(* * * *)
Detlef Kinsler In Musikexpress/Sounds 11-88
Q-Review
Not an inappropriate title all in all, given the pressure on Steve Wynn finally to come up with the haunted visionary guitar hero glories he's hinted at for so long. The move to yet another record label gets off to a promising enough start with the spangling guitars and dramatic intensity of The Side I'll Never Show, breathing new life into tired old rock bones, and the closers Black and When The Curtain Falls also more than pass muster. There is, however, to be no return to the gripping tension and dark heights of Medicine Show since much in between seldom rises above the merely functional.Wynn continues to be haunted by his twin devils of love and, more particularly, death but their inspirational effect seems to be fading. There's some untypically clumsy lyrics and a great deal of what sounds like going through familiar motions without Wynn ever extending himself beyond a peculiar kind of aggravated power pop. The cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson's See That My Grave Is Kept Clean effectively delivers in succinct form all that Wynn blusters to come up with elsewhere, and the mocking cabaret-styled call and answer song My Old Haunts (which asks what you do when you're past your best) shows what's on his mind.
Has America's best bet for a new erraticgenius herofinally blown it? Probably not-tune in different time, different label for another frustrating episode. . .
(***)
Ian Cranna in Q 10-88