Customer Reviews

Down Beside Your Beauty

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

 

 

This is the first essential rock record I've heard this year. Ken Griffin (Rollerskate Skinny, Kid Silver) has returned from bartending anonymity and chained his vocal, lyrical and musical talents onto a juggernaut of rock and roll power. Delivered with the urgency of a shout and the caress of a whisper, Griffin's weary old despair rides an undulating current of melodic salvation into the inferno.

This record will not make you cool. It deserves to be the sleeper hit of the year. Now I'm going to hide under a rock so I can pretend that it's mine alone.

This is a band that deserves a lot more publicity than they are getting. They are reminiscent of the Doors, Velvet Underground, Morphine, and other dark, spacy bands. Dark and haunting most of the time, and other times a bit more uplifting. I've also heard comparisons to Echo and the Bunnymen, but not having heard much of them, I can't comment. At any rate, each song is different, and every tune on the album is well-written.

Ken Griffin's lead vocals are what Jim Morrison tried to sound like on his best day, and I say that as a huge fan. According to an interview, he cut every vocal track without any edits, which is damned impressive considering how the vocals are almost flawless.

What the heck is up with all those used copies for cheap? Who would want to get rid of this album? This is great stuff.

I was introduced to Favourite Sons via a Pistols & Girls video on our local international TV station and immediately had to buy a copy. Never heard of Rollerskate Skinny/Horsedrawn Wishes or Ken Griffen/Kid Silver. Love love love the Favourite Sons...music is melodic, melancholy, enigmatic etc. What can I say...you either get it or you don't. Too sad that Favourite Sons isn't getting the recognition and fame they deserve! Sorry Ken. You might need to fix your karma but your music definitely does NOT need to be fixed.

I keep hoping that someday I'll get another Horsedrawn Wishes out of Ken Griffin, after buying this I don't have much hope. Perhaps I don't understand this record because I skipped Kid Silver, but I've heard my fair share of tunes and this just sounds like a drunk reeking of a 5 week bender reeling off his teenage sons' angry poetry (and not in a good Waits or Cave way). This album sounds like it was churned from an unpleasant bar band and where it does try to shake things up it remains assaultively eye-rolling. Looks like I'm sticking to Rollerskate Skinny.