Voto:
Well, I’ll give this record the usual 4 (if nothing else it has the merit of lasting only about twenty minutes, unlike Miami which lasts twice as long)... I’ve listened to the first 3 records by Gun Club (Las Vegas Story, if you tell me it’s even more boring than Miami, I’ll leave it right where it is, dear Fester :-D)... this kind of music isn’t my cup of tea... maybe it’s because I like the blues when it’s being mistreated... Gun Club, after all, had a lot of love for the old blues, just like their cousins Dream Syndicate (even more consistent than these), and they presented it while absorbing the prevailing mood of their generation (Sex Beat is new-wave, House on Highland is new-wave, like Patti Smith, Cure, etc...), but on the other hand, they bowed to the immense CCR (who, ironically, despite being labeled as "roots", have ended up overshadowing so much of that blues, rock, dark, and 80s new-wave...)... Fire of Love is powerful, energetic, messy, beautiful for half the record (the faster part)... Miami makes you yawn, it’s too blurry, poorly recorded, it wanders freely as if Pierce wanted to imitate Buckley (Watermelon Man), until it finally arrives (about time) at Mother of Heart, simply stunning; Death Party, on the other hand, has the gift of synthesis, it presents a tight, determined band and above all a sublime Pierce in his off-key notes (which, only in the presence of great scores, almost completely absent in Miami, release that sensation of trembling, anxiety, torment, and loss; otherwise, they are just embarrassing), heartbroken and without any more points of reference, completely adrift... in the end, I’m more and more convinced that the best record by Gun Club would be a potential compilation with Sex Beat, Promise Me, Heroin for Me, Ivy, Spirit, Ghost, Jack on Fire. Mother, The House on..., The Lie, Light of the World.
