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All right, I know what you're saying: "Who the hell is Kevin Coyne?" Well, he's pretty unique and hard to label, but he's just released the best album in some time that absolutely no one has ever heard of. You can begin to form a mental image by mixing together equal parts of Tom Waits and Van Morrison, then stirring in a shot of Joe Cocker, but understand that a major, indefinable ingredient would still be missing. His voice seems a little scary at first. It's a sort of straining rasp that may take awhile to warm up to, but it fits the wide-ranging songs like gloves.
Though this is no comedy album, most of the tracks will elicit at least a smile. The songs are tinged with his British-style wit and vocabulary, and many of the themes are off-the-wall to say the least. "The Einstein Song," for instance, lets us listen while he tries to convince the skeptical mother of his son that their odd boy is not as bad as he seems -- maybe. Then try not to smile as he persuades us (and himself?) that he's still full of life in "I'm Wild," or when he reassures that "God Watches Over You" but tempers it with "…at least that's what he says he does." There's the infectious, drunken slur of "Sugar Sugar Samba," which sticks in your brain like syrup. Then he gets romantic in the Ray Charles-ey, "Candlelight," and the bold, bluesy boast of "Take Your Pain Away."
Kevin Coyne has come up with a record that is mature, irreverent and cool all at the same time. You won't find any of this on the radio. But, if you're sick of listening to inane twenty-somethings going on about the same old things, or in the mood for something quirky and unique, but great none-the-less, then get this disc. You can toss the case. It'll be staying in the player.
~Mike Barkacs
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