Ike Reilly is my favorite artist making music today. I love every single one of these albums so the ones that rank at the bottom are still better than 90% of music in the world to me. If you're unfamiliar with his work the easiest (and most generic) description I can give him is a "Rock and Roll, Bob Dylan." That doesn't really do justice to all of what Ike does, as he rocks harder than Dylan ever did, but it's a valid comparison (especially in the way sly humor seeps into the songs). Most of his music is pure styled rock with folk and punk influences along with a few nods to hip-hop along the way. The real secret to Ike's music lies in his lyrics. I've listened to some of his songs what seems like a million times. There are still lines that I didn't notice before that will crack me up or hit me as being much more poignant that what I had realized. Unfortunately the things that make Ike's music so great are also likely the things that hold him back from finding a wider audience. His music just too lyrically dense and unfortunately smart, while the styles he writes in don't really have a natural radio outlet. While that may suck for Ike's pocketbook it does make being an Ike Reilly fan a fun little secret for everyone else.
As an aside, some of the albums are billed to Ike solo and some are credited to his full band, The Ike Reilly Assassination. for the purposes of this entry I will not be distinguishing between them.
Poison the Hit Parade isn't a really a true album. It's mostly a collection of B-sides, Outtakes and Alternate versions of previously released songs. This is the last album I'd recommend to anyone looking to check Ike's stuff out for the first time. The alternate versions of "Duty Free," "Hip Hop Thighs," "Cash is King," "Fish Plant Uprising," and "It's All Right To Die" are inferior to the original versions but great for fans to hear. The 3 new songs recorded for it are all great. "Poison the Hit Parade" and "Janie Doesn't Lie" are a fine way to start thr album off and "Dragonflies" is one of the best songs Reilly has ever written. A touching and uplifting song to a cancer patient with giant production and a hook to match. In a fair world it would have been a smash hit.
5. Hard Luck Stories (2009-digital/2010-physical)
Reilly's latest album just hasn't won me over like his other work. There are a lot of fine songs throughout but something just holds them back. I think it's the really polished production and lyrics that seem more obvious than what Ike has written in the past. That being said, "7 Come 11," "The Girls in the Back Room," The Reformed Church of the Assault Rifle Band," "The War on the Terror and the Drugs" and "Good Work" are all standout tracks and as good as anything Ike has ever recorded. The first two are upbeat rockers with great hooks and humorous stories to go with them. "The War" is a mid-tempo country duet with Shooter Jennings that is both funny and meaningful. "Good Work" is quite simply one of the best songs of the year. It has extra meaning to myself as well due to my own struggles with unemployment. The rest of the songs are all good and may even appeal to a wider audience than most of Ike's stuff due to their clean sound and straight forward lyrical nature.
4. Junkie Faithful (2005)
Junkie Faithful is the Ike album that has grown on me the most of all his work. When it was first released I had mainly liked Ike as a hard rocker and this album focuses more on his acoustic and folk side. The production is also a lot cleaner than anything Ike had released up to this point. Needless to say that while it didn't grab me right away like most of his stuff, it certainly has me now. Songs like "God and Money," "Edge of the Universe Cafe," "Devil's Valentine" and "Heroin" are excellent low key numbers that improve with multiple listens. The up-tempo songs ("Kara Dean," "Farm Girl" and "What A Day") all seem fairly slight and are held back by the clean production but are enjoyable nonetheless. Junkie's best songs all tread a middle ground, featuring excellent melodies and are are benefited by the production style. "I Will Let You Down" and "Suffer For the Trust" are sing a long types that will get stuck in your head for days and "The Mixture" is one of Ike's better hip-hop influenced tunes.
3. We Belong To The Staggering Evening (2007)
This is where the albums on the list start to get really awesome. We Belong To The Staggering Evening is the most diverse album in Reilly's catalog. There are full blown garage rockers ("8 More Days Till the 4th of July," "Fish Plant Uprising," "When Irish Eyes are Burning,") acoustic folk, ("Broken Parakeet Blues") and R&B influenced pop (Let's Get Friendly," "You're So Plain"). "Charcoal Days and Sterling Nights" is a mash up of several different styles in the same track! Reilly's lyrical subjects range from burning down your own house to sinning preachers, small town worker revolutions, drug induced trips in mexico, anti-war and of course various dealings with women. Staggering Evening is a fantastic album from start to finish.
2. Salesmen and Racists (2001)
Ike's First album, Salesmen And Racists, has to be the only major label debut to open with the line "Last night, I couldn't make you cum." While Ike's time on a major was pretty short lived, this record contains the basis for everything Ike has ever recorded. His lyrical wit is on full display in songs like "Angels and Whores," "Last Time" and "Cash is King." "Commie Drives a Nova" is the heaviest song he's ever recorded with metallic guitars leading the way for this fan favorite. That song and "Hip-Hop Thighs #17" show off the hip-hop influences that were prevalent on Ike's first few albums but have largely disappeared. "Duty Free" is an awesome upbeat rocker that I feel is one of the best top-down convertible riding songs ever recorded. "Put a Little Love in it (According to John)" is one of only 2 Ike songs I've ever heard on the radio (and is in the karaoke book at a local bar, kinda blew my mind when I saw that). "Crave" and "God Damn Shame" introduce the folk singer songwriter side of Ike in glorious form. There are days when I'd say Salesmen and Racists is Ike's best albums but that award generally goes to....
1. Sparkle In The Finish (2004)
Sparkle in the Finish is quite simply one of my favorite albums of all time. The opener "I Don't Want What You've Got (Goin' On)" is a fantastic beginning. It grabs the listener with the beat and shows some of Ike's most effective, for lack of a better word "rapping." It also contains my favorite Ike lyrics of all time, "Chuck Berry Cadillac, Ludacris Cadillac, Jerry Lee Lewis with his balls on fire, in the back of a rocket 88, with out of state plate and an underage date." From there on the album goes into full rock mode with "Holiday in New York," "It's Alright To Die," and "Whatever Happened to the Girl in Me" all being outstanding tracks. "The Boat Song (We're Getting Loaded)" is the other of Ike's songs I've heard on the radio and while it's one of the softer tracks on the album it's got a quiet intensity that's hard to capture. The rocking "Garbage Day" is another one of my all time personal favorite Ike songs. "Waitin' For Daddy" was recorded on an answering machine tape and while the sound quality is different than the rest of the album it's infectious and hilarious. The final two tracks "St. Joe's Band" and "Ex-Americans" are folky songs that bring the album to close on a subdued but high note. "Ex-Americans" in particular is outstanding. I've listened to Sparkle in the Finish more times than I can count and it never gets old. There is no reason for anyone who is a fan of rock and roll to not own it in some form.
No comments:
Post a Comment