Customer Reviews

Bulk

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read all the other customer-reviewers of Bulk, and I agree with every one with them.

It is not possible to find a better 2 CD set for the price as there is in Bulk. Logan recorded on his own for about 8 years before he was discovered, and this album is just a sample of the talent the man has. It's a huge sample, but one that will leave no one tired of his sound. He has too many sounds--when he falls into genres, it's usually rock & roll, r&b, country, maybe a little punkish at times, with the occasional song that sounds like delta blues. There are songs on this album that refuse to be put into any of those categories, or even a combination of those categories.

Musically all over the map, and he writes lyrics that make you envision Camus or Sartre whispering into his shoulder, sharing their insight into the human condition.

He is truly a humbling and yet humble musical force.

Bulk is what people should use as an example when their foreign friends ask what American music today really is.

Simply the most underrated of modern RnR geniuses (hell he's usually not even rated!). His vocal dual with the almost as underrated, Vic Chestnut on "The Parishioners" is haunting, "Town Crier" falls under the "indescribably delicious" category while the rest of the 42 (!) cuts cover just about every other genre you'd care to listen to (except for Rap thankfully). He and Liquor Cabinet crank out consistent low-fi ear-candy and to top it all off he's the cover artist too! I guess fiddling around with pool filter motors does something to spark creative genius, whatever it is go out and buy BULK now, you won't regret it!

Comprable to the great works of Bob Dylan, The Band, Bruce Springsteen, Muddy Waters, and Hank Williams,Sr. I've heard "Female Jesus" about 10,000 times and I still listened to the sample. Buy this and you'll thank me later.

This is a mysterious bounty of riches. One could view it as a history of rock in 42 tracks, or whatever. "Chloroform", for example, sounds like Hank Williams and Wire jamming, for chrissake. I'm very happy to see the plentiful mentions of "Town Crier" in the other reviews. It leaves the eyes blinking. If this all sounds vague, well, if you liked "Rust never Sleeps", "Beggar's Banquet", "Trust", "Carter Family's Greatest Hits", "The Sun Sessions", OR "The Basement Tapes", then this might just be the next step for you. And you know you've been waiting for it.

The talent and craft in this backporch extravaganza is stunning. Every track is a chapter in a great rock novel of the deep South at the end of a century. Buy two; one to play and one to will to your kids.

Rock'n'Roll! Jack Logan cuts to the chase, writing straight up R/R songs, but with a decidably unique touch all his own. Slot in CD1 and you'll be greeted with a cynical yet wholesomely honest '*** Everything', and then listen all the way till the end of Disc2, where the grand finale 'Town Crier' will leave you astounded, puzzled, and lost, wondering what on earth you had just heard. This album is like a familiar face with a surreal freakishness you can't quite put a finger on, comforting yet challenging all at once.

Nick Drake sang of the absurdity of life and Albert Camus wrote about it. Flannerey O'Connor took literary snap-shots of simple people with simple lives in the South. The Stones made a living off killer riffs and Neil Young brought us the muted agony of Tonight's the Night and frenzied emotion of Like a Hurricane. Jack Logan does all these things and he does them for one reason, it is what he likes to do.
I saw Jack Logan in Boston back in 1995. A friend and myself where the only people there to see him and know who he was. He introduced himself as being from London and proceeded to play about 2 hours worth of songs from Bulk (and drink about 10 Buds).
Female Jesus is a metaphor about people finding Salvation in different ways. Shrunken Head (Probably the most commercial song on the album) is a white trash anthem of growing up and dealing with tough family situations. Drunken Arms and New Used Car and a Plate of BBQ are classic Southern Country songs about longing and alcohol. Who else would mention Brunswick Stew in a song. Tex recalls Exile on Mainstreet Stones and Farsighted recalls early 80's Graham Parker.
Other stand-out songs include Escape Clause, 15 Years in Indiana, Chloroform (disturbing subject matter), Monday Night, Good Times/Bad Memories and Weatherman.
I own over 3000 CD's and can say without hesitation this is, along with Nick Drake's Pink Moon, my most listened to disc.
It is all things to people who love good old fashion rock and roll with a sense of humor and understanding of the daily toil that is life. Much like when Kurt Vonnegut inserts himself into his novel Breakfast of Champions, Jack Logan put himself into each song and gives us a view of life that is both humorous and depressing.

Jack had written 600 songs,
He recorded them all at home.
He put his "four tracks" down on a CD
And got 4 stars in Rolling Stone.

How to describe Jack Logan? The low-fi charms of Daniel Johnson or Guided By Voices...As earthy as Springsteen...Reckless as the Replacements...Switching musical hats with as much wit and panache as Elvis Costello...Jaw droppingly prolific as Prince...And yet, all that doesn't quite hit the mark. His songs are as eccentric as they are down to earth. His singing, as warm as its ragged.

Two things are bound to turn off the superficial. The sheer volume of tracks and the lo-fi sound quality. But if you can get past that, here is a virtual smorgassboard of styles: wry Country, drunken junkyard Blues, Garage Rawk, Punk, haunting ballads, and some stuff they haven't coined a phrase to describe.

One listen to the catchy hooks of "Voodoo Doll" and "Shrunken Head" and you'll be humming them for days. The likes of "Graves Are Fun To Dig" and "Would I Be Happy Then" will make you stop and think in between chuckles. Homicidal Femme Fatales, cocktail waitresses and Female Jesus' abound. Heartbreak comes to a fore on the gloriously angst ridden, "Cartoons".

Whether lovers are wrapped in plastic underneath the bed, or a good buddy is drinking himself to death, there's always some freak in the shadows waiting "to keep you warm with a big, brown bottle of 'Chloroform' ". No matter how bleak and strange life gets in Logan's Beer Fart Georgia, he always takes the time to point out that "in the fine print there's an escape clause".

Logan's since released more polished albums, but still remains a far too well kept secret. Bulk captures Logan's world in all its messy, bloodshot, chaotic glory. The type of stuff that hits you on the funnybone while putting a lump in your throat.

There is so much variety and quality on this album that you can leave the disc in the player all day. Its better than the radio!