Customer Reviews

Come Feel Me Tremble

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After listening to other reviewers say that "Come Feel Me Tremble" is probably the more polished of Paul Westerberg's two new releases, I'm really wondering what "Dead Man Shake" might sound like. Westerberg, who lately seems like he's never met a "Take-one" that he didn't like, presents "Tremble" in extreme lo-fi mode, allowing some missed-note vocals and buried mixes to often take forefront. Production wise, it's a step down from "Stereo" and even "Mono" for that matter. Even the CD label bears witness to this approach, as the song listings are out of order, and the art work slightly pixilated. The Replacements always walked along that razor blade edge between unchained rawness and structured lyricism. On "Tremble", there's a not-so-subtle reminder of this with the two versions of Crackle & Drag, one raucous, one delicate, running back-to-back.
Yet Westerberg on a bad-production day is better than most artists at their commercially slickest. The sincerity of his guitar riffs shines through; his clever lyrics keep your ear to the speaker in order to hear the words through the fuzz. He's always one to come up with great play-on-words song titles (Soldier of Misfortune, What A Day For A Night). Although he throws off the material like it doesn't matter, it's apparent his heart is in his work. In their minds, some fans are probably still hoping that buried in Westerberg is an album that combines the energy of the Replacements with with the maturity of a 40-something skilled artist. "Come Feel Me Tremble" is not that album, but it is a good portrait of a man who's still a rebel without a clue but with a lot to say. Airplay will probably elude him, but in today's over-hyped and over-commercialized music scene, Westerberg's continues to be the real thing.

I'm another one of these 'Mats/Paul fans who has been a little disappointed in some of the solo stuff (if only because of my high expectations). As I dutifully ordered both new CDs, I found myself thinking that I would like the Grandpaboy CD a lot better, since I enjoyed Mono a lot more than Stereo last time around. I'm happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Come Feel Me Tremble (not a rip on Dead Man Shake - also worth having). After about a week in my CD player, my early impression is that it's my favorite Paul solo effort so far. Just one long-time fan's opinion.

I bought the disc and carried it for a week before I popped it in. I was afraid, I guess. "Stereo" was one of the most depressed albums ever, and I just wasn't prepared to carry it. Love Paul, love the 'Mats, but I need some good times mixed in with my mid-life angst, you know?

Sure am glad I got over my wimpiness, because "Come Feel Me Tremble" was just what I needed. A kickass, basement recording that feels like a live club gig (remarkable, when you consider that Paul probably played everything himself), "Tremble" delivers everything we want from Paul - intelligent lyrics, killer hooks, wordplay, strangled vocals - only he lets his anger and joy spill out onto every track. Each cut is killer, rockin, sloppy as hell, and pure rock and roll.

Speaking of strangled vocals - Paul's voice isn't getting any better, exactly, but it's an amazingly expressive instrument. Oddly enough, he seems to be channeling Frank Black at times, which is only fair, since Black is a disciple. Hearing him struggle for the harmonies and high notes is painful sometimes, but then again, Paul's all about sharing his pain with his audience. Check out "Tremble" and feel a real man's pain.

It's impressive that this and the Grandpaboy album Dead Man Shake (which is also Paul Westerberg) have come out on the same day. For people that believe Paul is a fine songwriter, that's really good news. Still, it seems his love of the "first take" has led to more than a few half-cooked songs over the past couple of years. I guess it's understandable when you remember how overproduced and over-labored upon records like Dont Tell A Soul and Suicaine Gratification were. Those songs often seemed to have the air sucked out of them, and probably suffered frm over-production, and way too many takes and overdubs...

Now, left to his own devices and two indie labels - Fat Possum & Vaugrant - Paul seems to be making records by himself and in his basement, which leads to a homey sloppiness. I dont mind that. The looseness of the Replacements and of some of their contemporaries (Husker Du, Soul Asylum) and their influences (Faces, Stones) was one of their strongest attributes.

There are some wonderful songs here - but the tone seems of Come Feel Me Tremble feels too close to the Mono/Stereo albums to me. Dead Man Shake by Paul's alterego Grandpaboy seems different enough to make it much more interesting to me. Perhaps having the framework of making a semi-blues album for a semi-blues record label gave him enough structure to put that record on top. And much as I love the Jackson Browne song "These Days" on CFMT, the covers by Hank Williams and john Prine on Dead Man Shake are, again, better.

Ironic as it sounds, perhaps the music world borrowed from Paul Westerberg while he borrowed from others. Today's most recognized garage sounds would not have been able to be mainstreamed without the influence of this man. While all this swapping was occuring the scene passed by the man himself. As a forty-something, I listened to this and thought, people my age don't listen to music like this, and neither do kids today. (those damn kids today). Westerberg IS like a kid making puns and making rocking music on his own terms. This album is a pop masterpiece with a certain cutting edge sound that is a fresh alternative to the most "alternative" of music today. This Westerberg disc plays the way a good book reads, slashing hell and back breaking through sections of it but also stepping back in order to nail you with it's acoustic sensitivity. In his discography, Come Feel mMe Tremble is another fine example of underappreciated musical genius presented in its most modest self-effacing form.

Don't listen to the late-comers who criticize "Tremble"... This is the ramshakle sound that made the Replacements famous. This is the same Paul Westerberg that created havoc at a late eighties concert bill with Elvis Costello by announcing to the people in the cheap seats, "Come one down and take the $50 seats, Elvis said it's okay." This is Paul, the drunken brat that you just gotta love. I've seen both Paul and the Replacements dozens of times and he is the embodiment of punk americana. At the age of 44, Paul Westerberg has demonstrated that he will not go into the good night, softly. Listen and tremble.

Rejecting studio glossiness in favor of being authentic and honest is all well and good in theory. But if you take it too far, you stop gaining authenticity and honesty and just start coming off as needlessly sloppy and uninterested in giving the songs what they deserve. On this album, Westerberg threatens to drive all the way over the cliff into sonic garbageland, then thinks better of it and jumps out of the car seconds before it plunges downward. Although he would probably benefit from a little editing and polishing here and there, the roughness of Westerberg's execution generally enhances the songs (particularly lonesome shouts from the wilderness like "Meet Me Down The Alley"). Heck, I have even grown to view his clumsy drumming as rather charming.

There's a lot to love here. "What A Day (For A Night)" sparkles with its sharp lead guitar. "My Daydream" has a winning melody. "Wild & Lethal" swaggers nicely. And the Jackson Browne cover "These Days" is a thoughtful way to close out the proceedings.

Of the two versions of "Crackle & Drag," I'm going to have to cast my vote wholeheartedly for the alternate take. The original version is a little too uptempo and forceful for a meditation on suicide. "Pine Box" would have been twice as good if it were half as long. And "Never Felt Like This Before" is so pretty that I wish it were twice as long.

It's mildly irritating that the track listing on the back of my CD does not actually match the order on the actual album ("Hillbilly Junk" is listed at No. 3 but is, in fact, the No. 9 song). And, while I'm on the subject of the packaging, all of the pictures are substandard, like they were taken with some wretched cell-phone camera. Fortunately, none of this takes away from the high quality of the songs inside.

Much like the simultaneously released "Dead Man Shake", this album is loose and Paul is just letting it flow. However, the songwriting here seems more focused, so I like this one better. The two takes of "Crackle & Drag" (about Sylvia Plath's suicide) are the ones that really stand out on this album and make my hair stand on end. I love that back-to-back pairing. I'd get this album just for those two. Recommended.

Come Feel Me Tremble is the wrong title for this cd, and this miscalculation on the choice of title phrases doesn't bode well for an album that has its fair share of beautifully guttery rock n' roll.

On the album cover, that title appears beside a picture of a wreckless Paul looking like he's given up trying to put himself together and instead has let himself go.

And this combination of words and picture would seem to indicate that listening to the album would shed some light about a soul who's on the verge of a breakdown because he's too real of a person to live in a phony-filled world, or something desperate along those lines, which would ring true.

And though there is some great rock n' roll to be had here (from time to time), it's not the place to go if you're looking for 'desperate.'

Songs like 'Making Me Go,' and song 7 (can't remember title) are good rock n' roll songs that includes tinges of expressionistic achiness but are for the most part pretty straight-ahead rock numbers. Intermingled with pretty good songs like these is a bunch of adult-sounding boredom that comes across about as rascally and loose as doing your homework. Some of these songs, including the cover of 'These Days' (And I love the original), seem to be most listenable while staring at your plate of eggs and bacon, with your lover sitting across from you at a diner, both feeling too stale on this particular Saturday morning to escape the absorption of the self-conscious mind to dig into those eggs!

Despite too much seriousness and poetry and not enough shakiness and pill-popping, this album includes a couple of gems, 'Hillbilly Junk' and 'Pine Box.' I could listen to this lazy, raucous, and sensitive 'Junk' about a thousand times in a row.

And though 'Pine Box' has a searing political message, it trembles pretty vivaciously and did get me thinking that an actual nervous breakdown may be around the corner.

I was one of the unforunate few who stumbled on to the Replacements
a little to late to catch them live. I followed Pauls solo career which had some hit and misses, forunatly I stumbled on to Pauls first DVD which worked for me. Hillbilly Junk , What A Day For a Night may not be All shook down but its still some of the best music I have come across in some time. If you like the Strokes or the White Stripes take a look a a guy that was doing that 20 years ago and still does today !