Customer Reviews

Apocalypso Now

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have always been a fan of Walter Egan since the early days of Magnet and Steel. A friend of mine turned me on to this new and exciting album Apacalypso Now. GREAT STUFF!
I would encourage people to play this album in the car, at home anywhere! It makes you feels great to be alive and brings back great memories.
It's funny how an artist that we heard in the past and associate "good times" can immediately transcend you back to a happy moment by just hearing their voice again.
That's what Apocalypso Now does for me.
I have seen many changes in this world as time goes by...
but Walter's style of music and unforgettable vocals can make anybody proud to be an American and have the freedom to enjoy life.
My personal favorite is "My Love Is In Your Veins", great energy in the song!
A review to me is like an a**hole everyone has one and (some are bigger than others) so I normally don't like to run off like this but....what the heck, if you have something good to say might as well share it.
Thanks Walter! Keep the music coming and we will keep listening!

First off, let me preface this by saying I was involved in the making of Walter Egan's Apocalypso Now, so obviously I'm a bit biased. That being said, don't go strictly by Jef Fazekas review if you're wondering about Apocalypso Now. Here's what James Casara from Rapid River Monthly had to say:

A quarter century after the radio perfect "Magnet and Steel" catapulted him to stardom Egan is back with a disc that oozes with charm, sparkle, and an effervescent wit that makes one long for the days when FM ruled the airways, not with an iron hand, but with a tender heart.

The now Nashville-based Egan continues to be one of music's rare renaissance men, releasing a steady stream of solo albums, fronting an impressive array of band configurations, while continuing his acclaimed work as a graphic artist and writer. Apocalypso Now is streamlined pure pop passion, gliding easily from romantic magnetism to introspective self-examination, all with an utter lack of predicament and without the slightest hint of overstating its own importance.

It is, in short, precisely the type of album these media manufactured times need much more of. Egan's talents, buoyed by a nearly perfect voice, have not diminished one iota in the intervening years. It's just too bad radio has deteriorated to the point that Apocalypso Now may have to struggle to find an audience.- James Casara

then there's AllMusic Guide:

...anyone who feels that pop music took a wrong turn in the early '80s and longs for the glory days of '70s Southern California rock should feel right at home. - William Ruhlmann

and The Nashville Tennessean:

...The album is a dense, stylistically divergent pop effort, marked by virtuosic guitar work and Egan's atypical style.

And there are many more positive reviews. So, hopefully, before anyone hangs their hat on one irate review they'll consider some of the others.

Walter Egan
Apocalypso Now
Gaff Music GAFF12902
He kicks things off with the Bo Diddley beat, that chunk, chunka-chunk, a-chunk chunk bit that's brought us some of the greatest hits of rock, R & B and country for half a century now. He also plays most of the instruments on the record himself. There's a lot of Tom Petty in his voice and delivery, though, of course, no one can really whine as well as Tom Petty. Maybe that's why the persona Egan develops throughout this CD is so much more capable and competent than one imagines the scrawny Petty to be.
Liner notes are actually liner anecdotes, brief stories penned by Egan, so what you get is a CD and a collection of short stories for one price. One of the stories, New England Hurricane begins: "In Minot, Massachusetts, where I have recently chosen to live, the Ocean, who lives just across the street, had quite a party the other day . . . " That's the way Walter Egan expresses himself, both in song and in prose. He is concise, yet at the same time masterfully expressive.
"Rain in Tennessee," the tenth of 13 cuts on this release, may be the best cut. It matches message and music as well as Smoky Robinson ever did, and that's saying a lot. While the songs are all quite well crafted, some could be done better. Key selections are a little out of Egan's reach on a couple of cuts. Track layering, especially harmony vocal tracks, could take a few tweaks so far as levels and effects go. It sounds as if studio time, which is, of course, an expensive commodity, ran out a little too early.
This is not to say that "Apocalypso Now" is not a fine release, especially with the bonus short stores included, simply that we can look forward to hearing even more not only from the highly gifted Walter Egan, but from these very songs. Slept on for a while, delivered live and learning from audience reaction and readdressed in the studio a few years hence, these already fine rock and country songs could be even better.

This is the most recent Walter Egan solo studio album, released the same year as The Malibooz's Beach Access and The Brooklyn Cowboys' Dodging Bullets.

Stylistically, this album is not as eclectic as its predecessor, 1999's Walternative. However, while I believe that Walternative is Egan's magnum opus, this is a worthy follow up. The sound of many of the songs are heavily influenced by the country and folk scene in the Nashville area, where Walter Egan makes his home. Also prevelant on many songs, as the title suggests, is the influence of calypso music. Other songs display a harder, more rocking sound than even much of Egan's solo work from the 1980's. Altogether, these sounds make for an excellent listening experience. Favorites include "Wanting You," "Rain in Tennessee," "You Pay for Love," and "Love is in Your Veins."

All this being said, I do have one complaint about the album - the song "Only Love is Left Alive." We previously heard an early version of the track on Mad Dog and, in that form, it is one of my favorite Egan tunes. Here, however, it's been slowed down and its electric edge tamed. The result is that much of what made the other version great is lost and what is left just isn't up to par.

On a more positive note, there is a hidden song (the title is not provided but Walter calls it "Rockababy Mama") at the end of track 13 that's a little unusual in that we don't normally hear Egan doing rockabilly music. He does it well, though, so if you're listening to this disc you'd be well advised not to hit the stop button after "Lullaby."

Another thing of interest is that the full title of this album is Apocalypso Now: Songs & Stories by Walter Egan. The liner notes to this album do not make any mention of the music at all. Instead, Egan has taken the opportunity to use it to publish a collection of his short stories (though I'm not sure if they are fiction, non-fiction, or a combination of both). At any rate, these too are enjoyable - if a little unusual.

For more information on this and ALL OTHER Walter Egan releases, check out my website at Walternative.com!

First, let me say that it's great to hear that Walter's Back. Walter's true fans will always be here. Don't pay any attention to Jef's review. Some of us cannot appreciate the finer elements of music. Some of us don't realize that it's very easy to become a critic when one is not creative himself. This record is great. (Every song on it!) Keep it up Walter.

Walter Egan's re-emergence on the music scene with 2000's WALTERNATIVE was a welcomed surprise, not only because it reintroduced his long-missed vocal stylings and unique songwriting, but because it also showed off an artist who, in the seventeen years since the underwhelming WILD EXHIBITIONS, was willing to grow and try new things, taking chances in a way that isn't the norm in general(most of pop music today) and/or in particular(a lot of Egan's past efforts). Last year's release of THE LOST ALBUM, a disc that was originally due out in 1996 but was shelved due to record company politics, proves that Egan was starting to evolve even back then. While girls and cars were still central themes, there were other, deeper ones to interest us now, like aging, commitment and parenthood. The music was also deeper and richer, moving away from standard two or three chord arrangements to a variety of styles and sounds. And that's why APOCALYPSO NOW is such a dismal disappointment. On the one hand, it's nothing more than a one-note break-up album. On the other, it's a giant step backwards, with Egan repeating a lot of the same mistakes and/or repeatative ideas from his first five albums over twenty years ago. Opening up the disc is "Far and Away", a less-than-exciting, been-there-done-that break-up song. You can base a whole album around the disintegration of a relationship(Carly Simon's TORCH and Rosanne Cash's INTERIORS are both prime examples), but you have to do it from a number of angles, so that the stories and feelings sound rounded and complete. "Far and Away" hints to us that Egan has failed to do that on APOCALYPSO NOW, resulting in an opening track that is both faceless and shallow. Next up is "Love Is In Your Veins", which is supposed to be this back-to-the-wall rocker, but just comes across as shrill and grating. Things bounce back slightly with "Ten Years Ago", an acoustic-based strummer about looking back at the past in sadness and awe, and the sense of longing that can result in doing so. "Ten Years Ago" is one of A.N.'s strongest tracks instrumentally, but it's lyrics wind up a bit trite by song's end. Next up is "Stubborn Girl", a full-tilt rocker that is loose, fresh and fun. Sporting a great arrangement and a brilliant vocal, it is by far the disc's best track, due also in part to the fact that it is also the only song that sounds new and unique to Egan and his musical stylings. "Time and the Rain" sports a heartfelt instrumental arrangement, but is ultimately bogged down by it's bad-poetry lyrics and cheesy female backing vocals. Why Egan chose to rerecord "Only Love Is Left Alive", one of the weaker tracks from THE LOST ALBUM, is beyond me. The fact is, it could very well be the same track, with the only difference being the replacement of Christine McVie's gorgeous harmony vocal with those of some souless studio hack's. Things sink to an all-time low with "Better Day", a piece of cliched claptrap that actually makes me cringe every time it comes on. "The Reason Why" gives "Stubborn Girl" a run for it's money as the CD's best track, but the economical yet classic techniques of Gene Clark's songwriting only helps to show the many shortcomings of A.N. Next up is "Wanting You", a piece of '70's arena rock that sounds dated, blotted and, by song's end, goes on 90 seconds too long. This is bad Starship at it's worst! "Rain In Tennessee" is a classic break-up song, with some beautiful lyrics("We cannot command the Fates/We must just be thankful/For what's on our plates"). APOCALYPSO NOW would have benefited from more tracks like this one. "You Pay For Love" is another stinker that proves this CD is far from Egan's best work, while "You're Gonna Miss Me" is Egan at his most immature....the song has a falseness to it that results in the singer coming across as the real loser here. The last listed track, "Lullaby", is a lovely instrumental that shows, once and for all, what an underrated guitarist Walter Egan really is. One or two more such tracks would have rounded out the disc nicely. Last up is a hidden track, a bouncy, fun, rockabilly rave-up that would have fit well on WALTERNATIVE. So.....where do we go from here? After following Walter on his musical journey for over twenty-five years, I will certainly continue to listen to whatever he does. I just hope that, after moving forward in such a big way, this stumble backwards is only a temporary setback.