X – Under the Big Black Sun
The third X album was definitely far more commercial sounding than the previous outings, though still pretty intense punk rock and harder than most listeners could take in the early 80’s.
DJ Bonebrake shows off his immense skills on “Hungry Wolf”, alternating from jungle rhythms to tough punk. The band is super tight here and the song is infectious as hell and a great start. Keeping the same energy in “Motel Room in my Bed”, they tell of their trials on the road after several years of continual touring.
One of their most haunting songs ever is “Riding With Mary”, about Exene’s sister who was killed in a car crash on the way to see the band at the Whiskey. They manage to contain all of the emotion of this tragedy in this unforgettable song with its simple yet infectious progression and perfect (for the song) harmonies.
Another sad song is the dreary (but not in a bad way!) “Come Back To Me”, a moody ballad with bluesy sax accompaniment by Billy Zoom, showing off his versatility. More relationship issues are explored here, and another easily relatable line is “I cry to talk to you through the bathroom wall”.
Returning to a more frantic pace in the title cut, Zoom gives us an unusual guitar line that sounds something like a 50’s Johnny Cash tune. They really did mix their styles! Influenced by hard core, they are perfectly frantic in “Because I Do” and DJ is complexly manic! But they maintain a real melody and interesting lyrics about being “the married kind”.
Another of their most evocative songs is “Blue Spark”. The guitar slides are super powerful and effective and rhythm is tight punk backing Doe’s wails about waiting for your loved one. They make a complete stylistic turnaround on “Dancing With Tears in my Eyes”, a tin pan alley tune that Exene found on a Leadbelly record and sang to her departed sister. Odd and a little out of place, but this showed another side of the band.
“Real Child of Hell” is a hellacious rocker with cool accents from Zoom and the usual superb playing by Bonebrake. John says he was influenced by Eddie Cochran and Johnny Cash for “How I Learned My Lesson” but while I can here these influences elsewhere, this one is pretty straightforward and maybe the call and response vocals have a precedent from these cats but otherwise this is reasonably basic punk – but good!
The album closed with “The Have Nots”, which has a similar feel to “White Girl” while maintaining its own personality and creating a super tune. This has almost a country tinge to it without being obvious about it, though they brought that aspect out more when they would later do this song acoustically.
This collection also has a number of fine bonus tracks. There is a single version of “Riding With Mary” (with more prominent piano), a snippet of them fucking around with Marty Robbin’s “El Paso” (they should have considered actually covering it, if they never did), an instrumental take on “Because I Do”, a live “Universal Corner”, their fantastic reading of Jerry Lee Lewis’ monster “Breathless” with Exene singing lead, and finally a live “How I Learned My Lesson”.
As I said, this record is a little slicker than their previous outings and much more progressive and tuneful than most of their punk rock contemporaries but maintains a real intensity and emotional appeal throughout.
DJ Bonebrake shows off his immense skills on “Hungry Wolf”, alternating from jungle rhythms to tough punk. The band is super tight here and the song is infectious as hell and a great start. Keeping the same energy in “Motel Room in my Bed”, they tell of their trials on the road after several years of continual touring.
One of their most haunting songs ever is “Riding With Mary”, about Exene’s sister who was killed in a car crash on the way to see the band at the Whiskey. They manage to contain all of the emotion of this tragedy in this unforgettable song with its simple yet infectious progression and perfect (for the song) harmonies.
Another sad song is the dreary (but not in a bad way!) “Come Back To Me”, a moody ballad with bluesy sax accompaniment by Billy Zoom, showing off his versatility. More relationship issues are explored here, and another easily relatable line is “I cry to talk to you through the bathroom wall”.
Returning to a more frantic pace in the title cut, Zoom gives us an unusual guitar line that sounds something like a 50’s Johnny Cash tune. They really did mix their styles! Influenced by hard core, they are perfectly frantic in “Because I Do” and DJ is complexly manic! But they maintain a real melody and interesting lyrics about being “the married kind”.
Another of their most evocative songs is “Blue Spark”. The guitar slides are super powerful and effective and rhythm is tight punk backing Doe’s wails about waiting for your loved one. They make a complete stylistic turnaround on “Dancing With Tears in my Eyes”, a tin pan alley tune that Exene found on a Leadbelly record and sang to her departed sister. Odd and a little out of place, but this showed another side of the band.
“Real Child of Hell” is a hellacious rocker with cool accents from Zoom and the usual superb playing by Bonebrake. John says he was influenced by Eddie Cochran and Johnny Cash for “How I Learned My Lesson” but while I can here these influences elsewhere, this one is pretty straightforward and maybe the call and response vocals have a precedent from these cats but otherwise this is reasonably basic punk – but good!
The album closed with “The Have Nots”, which has a similar feel to “White Girl” while maintaining its own personality and creating a super tune. This has almost a country tinge to it without being obvious about it, though they brought that aspect out more when they would later do this song acoustically.
This collection also has a number of fine bonus tracks. There is a single version of “Riding With Mary” (with more prominent piano), a snippet of them fucking around with Marty Robbin’s “El Paso” (they should have considered actually covering it, if they never did), an instrumental take on “Because I Do”, a live “Universal Corner”, their fantastic reading of Jerry Lee Lewis’ monster “Breathless” with Exene singing lead, and finally a live “How I Learned My Lesson”.
As I said, this record is a little slicker than their previous outings and much more progressive and tuneful than most of their punk rock contemporaries but maintains a real intensity and emotional appeal throughout.
posted by rich @ 12:18 PM
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