Gasoline Alley follows the same formula of Rod Stewart's first album, intercutting contemporary covers with slightly older ock & roll and folk classics and originals written in the same vein. The difference is in execution. Stewart sounds more confident, claiming Elton John's "Country Comfort," the Small Faces' "My Way of Giving," and the Rolling Stones' version of "It's All Over Now" with a ragged, laddish charm. Like its predecessor, nearly all of Gasoline Alley is played on acoustic instruments -- Stewart treats ock & roll songs like folk songs, reinterpreting them in individual, unpredictable ways. For instance, "It's All Over Now" becomes a shambling, loose-limbed ramble instead of a tight R&B/lues groove, and "Cut Across Shorty" is based around a howling, Mideastern violin instead of a ockabilly riff. Of course, being a rocker at heart, Stewart doesn't let these songs become limp acoustic numbers -- these rock harder than any fuzz-guitar workout. The drums crash and bang, the acoustic guitars are pounded with a vengeance -- it's a wild, careening sound that is positively joyous with its abandon. And on the slow songs, Stewart is nuanced and affecting -- his interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Only a Hobo" is one of the finest Dylan covers, while the original title track is a vivid, loving tribute to his adolescence. And that spirit is carried throughout Gasoline Alley. It's an album that celebrates tradition while moving it into the present and never once does it disown the past.
Since I haven't reviewed anything for a while, I went to pick up a Faces album to review and came up short. Yes, the Faces are on the album, three of them on two tracks each and the others on every track. But it's definitely the work of just one of them, their lead vocalist, the superstar in waiting, the one-time gravedigger, the product of Scottish blood based out of dirty London town. You kno...
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Since I haven't reviewed anything for a while, I went to pick up a Faces album to review and came up short. Yes, the Faces are on the album, three of them on two tracks each and the others on every track. But it's definitely the work of just one of them, their lead vocalist, the superstar in waiting, the one-time gravedigger, the product of Scottish blood based out of dirty London town. You kno...
More >
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