Contender (& X Rays)

AMG Review of Contender (& X Rays)

Pemberton Roach
All Music Guide

Contender, singer/songwriter David Olney's first LP, was recorded with his Nashville-based ock band, the X-Rays. Though, according to the liner notes, the album was intended to capture the now legendary act with "no gimmicks...playing and singing in as live a situation as possible," the resulting record suffers from that all too common "great live band/boring studio band" phenomenon. It's obvious even from this recording, though, that the group excelled at the same sort of rootsy yet seamless, tight yet loose groove that characterizes the sound of acts like NRBQ and Rockpile. Olney's lyrics are, of course, uniformly excellent, but he has little regard for melody here, preferring rather to grunt his way though most songs in an atonal voice reminiscent of Mountain's Leslie West. While this approach occasionally brings the energy level up a notch, most of the time the music here sounds like a Southern-fried version of typical late-'70s David Johansen-style gutter ock, sans the punk attitude and cool outfits. The only time the album really catches fire is on the title track, which foreshadows Onley's later brilliant story songs on albums like 1995's flawless High, Wide and Lonesome. On this song, Olney's gruff vocals perfectly match the washed-up boxer narrator's style of barroom pathos in a way that favorably compares to Bob Dylan's classic "Hurricane" from the 1976 Desire album. Overall, Contender is an interesting glimpse at a raw talent still finding his niche.