Hey, come on try a little, nothing is forever

The Wallflowers - Bringing Down The Horse (1996) ** 1/2

Nominated by: Greg Knowles

Music club: Wander to Wozza's

Playlist addition: One Headlight

I knew this one was coming from the House of Knowles at some point. Jakob Dylan fits in well with the Justin Townes Earl/Ryan Adams/Gaslighters et al and the Americana genre as a whole, while also being a pop band at times. Taylor made for Knowles' Towers.

Like Steve Forbert, I am aware that GK has enjoyed this album since it came out.

I have a copy (as I've already indicated) but my association with the album is a little disingenuous. I had a CD copy when it came out, but I sold it. I gained a second copy a few years ago when Adam's father-in-law was getting rid of all his CDs and Adam said I'd give them a good home. So - second copy arrived and I have decided not to sell off any more stuff.

Why did I part with my original copy? The answer presented itself anew as I relistened to the CD after GK's choice was announced.

The first two tracks are brilliant! Too brilliant actually!! I love love love them both and cherish the reunion each time. They nail the drum sound from the off, lovely organ flourishes, Jakob's impassioned vocals are superb and the Springsteenish lyrics and choruses hook me in every time. The Harrison like slide guitar on 6^th Avenue is a treat!

But from then on, the songs vary in quality a lot for me. Again - a sequencing rethink might have been better but I get the - 'put our strongest tracks first' idea. So - who knows.

Three Marleenas is good - good change of pace and that organ sound again, almost as good as those first two tracks. But the others aren't memorable. Twenty years ago I was keeping stuff I loved from go to woah, and two great tracks out of 11 didn't meet that criteria.

So - two clear stonking highlights - One Headlight and 6^th Avenue Heartache

The rest - Bleeders/The Difference/Laughing Out Loud etc etc are a bit too noisy, a bit too try hard to my ears - not the easy joy of those first two tracks. The slower tracks (apart from Josephine) are okay but again, the lack of memorable hooks makes them all sound the same.

So - overall a two and a half star rating for me - a mix of meh and pretty fine (and again - those first two songs are magnificent)