Amazon.com
Although he's never dented the American marketplace, Paul Kelly is one of Australia's most important talents--sort of the down-under equivalent of Neil Young, Joe Ely, and Elvis Costello.
Wanted Man, Kelly's 10th album, features a shift in his sound from folk-rock to folk-soul. The album begins with a lovely, understated ballad which compares a lover to the "Summer Rain," as refreshing as it is unpredictable. The more carnal aspects of love are detailed in the infectious and funky "Just Like Animals." "Song from the Sixteenth Floor" employs a Smokey Robinson-like chain of metaphors to describe how he would jump off a tall building, wrestle a lion, crawl over broken glass to get to his beloved. Other numbers were cowritten with fellow Australians Nick Cave and Renee Geyer. Best of all, though, is "Maybe This Time for Sure," an irresistibly bouncy pop tune full of less-than-convincing promises to stop lying and "walk the straight and narrow."
--Geoffrey Himes
Product Description
After a music career already spanning over three decades, Wanted Man - released in 1994 - was Paul Kelly's first solo studio album. Backed by a band of mostly American session players (Kelly was living in America at the time), it was a fairly straight-ahead presentation of a new set of Kelly compositions. Stand-outs included God's Hotel (based on a poem by Nick Cave), the lilting Song From The Sixteenth Floor, the reggae-tinged We've Started A Fire and the tongue-in-cheek rock of Everybody Wants To Touch Me.
--This text refers to an alternate
Audio CD
edition.
