Customer Reviews

The Casual Gods

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

 

 

Jerry Harrison released this, his second solo album, a few months before the last Talking Heads album, "Naked". It's clearly the better album. The Heads seemed to be running out of inspiration, but Jerry himself wasn't.

After two relatively straightforward TH pop albums, "Little Creatures" and "True Stories", Jerry returned to the funk-rock sounds of "Speaking in Tongues". The groove-oriented atmosphere is helped along by two members of the "Stop Making Sense" live band, Alex Weir and Bernie Worrell, although Jerry wrote a number of the songs with his old Modern Lovers bassist, Ernie Brooks.

However, the album is hardly a clone of "Tongues". Guitar parts are as prominent as keyboards in the sound. And the lyrical topics are far darker than the whimsy of then-recent TH albums: mercenaries ("Cherokee Chief"), disappearance and suicide ("Bobby), depression("Let it Come Down"), less-than-happy relationships ("I'm Still Running", "Breakdown in the Passing Lane"). The lyrics are always thoughtful and intelligent, almost like little film noir tales. At the same time, the music is very catchy and danceable. Jerry's voice is rather limited in range and a bit colorless, sort of like Lou Reed's, and occasionally hard to hear, but effective despite this (again, like Reed).

The outstanding tracks are the hypnotic ballads "Let it Come Down" and "Man with a Gun" (the latter from the movie "Something Wild"), the rocker "Cherokee Chief" (which got a bit of airplay) and "Rev it Up", especially. The album's single, this cruising song is more extroverted than the rest of the album. But the CD as a whole is really listenable until the end, which contains two versions of "Bobby" -- the second a remix which wears out its welcome before it 7 minutes are up. The album, on a whole, though, was unfairly overlooked, and deserved a second chance from TH fans as well as people who like a some thinking along with their dancing.

Amazon doesn't seem to have the track listing:

1. Rev it up
2. Song of angels
3. Man with a gun
4. Let it come down
5. Cherokee chief
6. A perfect lie
7. Are you running?
8. Breakdown in the passing lane
9. A.K.A. Love
10. We're always talking
11. Bobby
12. Bobby (extended mix)

I'm not sure if all versions have track 12. Sire Records, 1987.

I began my search for "Casual Gods" when I heard the song "Man With A Gun" at the end of the movie "Two Moon Junction". I had that track in my head for weeks before I finally got this album in the mail, and I think the song is hypnotic, sexy, excellent, and worth the purchase alone. "Rev It Up" is another great track, and I believe was a single. A few of these songs have a subtle Talking Heads vibe, especially during the "keyboard solos", but I suppose that's unavoidable since he was in that band. In the track "We're Always Talking" I even hear some "Roxy Music" influence. Others worth a mention are "Song Of Angels" and "Let It Come Down". I'd say the first half of the album is a bit stronger overall. It's too bad all his stuff is out of print since it's quite good. Worth getting like I said, whether you're a fan of Talking Heads, the late 80's, or just good tunes.

Anyone that is just looking for hits probably won't be reading this (they're on a page just buying one of the Best of Talking Heads collections or (worse) their soundtrack of the 80's was written by Kenny Logins). Even if you are just counting hits, this album also includes "Man With a Gun" which got just as much or more airplay than "Rev it Up" at the time.

As for the whole disc, like the the Talking Heads, the tracks are driven with a very danceable bassline, but with plenty of guitar/synth grinding that churn the songs along. There's a good deal of overdubbing that reminds me of other discs of the time (e.g. Robbie Robertson, David & David, etc.). His vocals are not as strong (or quirky) as David Byrne's but the effort is enjoyable. In fact, the only failure on the disc is the last song which is the most like the Talking Heads offerings. But then an album is more than just one song.

The cover art, which has photos of thousands of men literally scraping a living out off the cliffs of a mine in Brazil, IS powerful stuff. Even with the LP, it takes a moment to realize the antlike figures are actually men.

There's a little bit of everything on here. Really a good disk. Wish they'd done more. Not full of smarmy love songs, has some interesting and quirky lyrics. If you get the chance, read up on the photo on the cover. Fascinating...

I used the then-hit "Rev It Up" on my Talking Heads mix CD. It's very cool, but the rest of the CD did not impact me the same way. Talking Heads CDs are like some other bands -- the songs are either hit or miss, and I generally only took 1-2 songs from each disc, except Little Creatures, which is overall excellent. The Casual Gods artwork is very compelling, something I can rarely if ever say about any CD. I depicts the plight of exploited miners in South America who are forced to manually remove dirt in bags on their backs up rickety ladders from great depths. Compelling. Edit: <rant> Hey, you first two guys did not like my review? Then try picking up your own copy of this out-of-print CD for $2. </rant>