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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting later album with hidden treasures, July 12, 1999
GRAHAM PARKERREVIEW: Burning Questions GRAHAM PARKER Where there's a smoking discussion there must be a burning question. And this one is -- how does BQ rate in the GP oeuvre? Burning Questions is more a sleeper than a knock down, no-holds-barred masterpiece like the first four (Howlin Wind, Stick To Me, Heat Treatment and Squeezing Out Sparks). "Smouldering Questions" might have been a better title. There are a few sparks squeezed out but they don't really catch alight. It seems to me there's a transition going on between the band thing and the defiant simplicity of 12HE which was wholly performable solo. The range of talent on the album is impressive. As in SBL Andrew Bodnar (Rumour), Pete Thomas (Attractions) make up the rhythm section. Mick Talbot (Style Council) plays keyboards (rather uninspiringly) with PP Arnold, an obscure but renowned (Small Faces, Roger Waters, Joan Armatrading) backing vocalist plus Eddie Manion (who played a Springsteen gig this year) on sax and a string quartet for Long Stem Rose. Release Me's "gris gris you sprinkled in my bed is starting to make me crack" is a powerful image but "Ah my blood's still boiling, like a snake you come coiling" is, hmmm, how do you say, trite? And we really expect a bit more than "I ain't nothin but your slave of love." Release Me might be weak lyrically but with its assured chorus hook and the sax and vocal parts and echoey drums probably is the hardest working track on the album. Too Many Knots To Untangle is one of GP's better tracks on any album where the bitter and cynical world view is framed in an insistent love song. The ooohs are reminiscent of Big Man On Paper and the great bass runs are musically among his best. There's no doubt GP finds the world stupid and evil -- he needs to share his loneliness with someone who understands him but he doesn't want his partner to be bitter -- he needs the comfort of uncomplicated love. In Love is a Burning Question "The only time the world makes sense to us is when we come ...I'll endlessly search for your heart with a carnal switchblade ... I've used you you're bleeding I know but don't be afraid..." I think he's saying that while love is a burning question sex is not the answer. It's just a place (oblivion?) in which hide. This song has a rather overblown sense of grandeur -- it's a tender little ditty about futility and doesn't seem capable of carrying the superstructure of the production it gets. Despite the confusion in Platinum Blonde (as to what it's really about) this song is one of the better ones on the record. A diatribe about the Swedes or one in particular is a mite shallow as a topic but there are plenty of observations and clever comments thrown in. The country picking seems to hearken back to Howlin Wind and forward to 12HE. Long Stem Rose has a haunting melody, not to my taste but memorable. However once again the metaphor seems stretched beyond endurance. The whole idea might have been a single line in another song. It doesn't seem to have the same personal private meaning or power as say, Strong Winds. Short Memories is a single if there ever was one. That one probaby still rubs the status quo up the wrong way. Its second verse adds the personal to the rollicking protest anthem. Futility again with the bridge: "Sure there'll be another war." Here It Comes Again lacks that echoing drum sound and seems to benefit from the lack of it. Just a fast rhythm guitar and scorching lyrics. A standout track. Spector-like wall of sound behind the rhythm guitar. Mr Tender's corny melody is the most un-GP like sound I can think of. And yet the lyrics are classic recent GP. A song I can't quite cope with musically, but it's a worthy effort, like They Murdered The Clown -- using a musical genre, or sound effect, has its dangers. It can overwhelm your own melodic invention. Just like Hermann Hesse with its key change for the chorus seems to me a tad experimental. The album is skating on thin ice here. Things only marginally improve with Yesterday's Cloud, a fun song with a pastiche of GP-isms flung together in a romp with background oy!s. At least it rocks. Oasis is reminiscent of The Sun Is Gonna Shine Again but can't hold a candle to it, I'm afraid. (...I will try not to be your mirage...) The lyrics just don't seem to rise above the rhyming dictionary. And Worthy Of Your love ends the set in a rather desultory fashion. These songs were just waiting for the private, crystal clear arrangements of 12HE. So Burning Questions was, like the Up Escalator, another golden GP era fizzling out. But it carried the seeds of the next phase. 12 Haunted Episodes, more personal, less commercial, is the most unified and internally consistent of GP's later career. Not to all tastes, for sure, but... Lack of success for 12HE probably created some of the "classic" angry-young-(middle-aged)-man flavours of Acid Bubblegum, which despite its title is a rather quiet and thoughful album. Other live solo and and accompanied tours (Japan, Episodes, Figgs) rounded out this phase. What's next? A new direction? I'm hoping it's a relaxed acceptance that here is one of the best writers alive, who uses a great medium to express himself, has a passion in his voice equalled by none -- leading inevitably to a celebration of his own creativity and his musical roots. More Motown. More power pop. More ska. More reggae. More cynical brilliance. More GP. Robert Whyte July 1998© 1977 Robert Whyte This review was sent the Graham Parker mailing list. For more information on Graham Parker, visit Squeezing Out Sparks (unofficial Graham Parker Home Page).
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