Music and Recording Reviews

Peter Perrett: The Cleansing
Domino Records WIGLP543 (LP). 2024. Jamie Perrett, prod.; Barry Grint, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics ****

The Only Ones formed in 1976, at the dawn of the punk era. The South London quartet never quite fit in, being more Dylan and Velvet Underground than Damned or Pistols. After three good albums and a masterpiece of a single ("Another Girl, Another Planet"), the group split in 1982.

Happily, we hadn't heard the last of lead singer Peter Perrett, although it took a few decades. After two albums with The One, Perrett released the solo albums How the West Was Won and Humanworld in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Now there's The Cleansing, and it's quite the gem.

Perrett hasn't lost his gift for catchy riffs and captivating lyrics; in fact, experience has sharpened them. This double album of 20 songs is one of the finest projects of his career. Perrett's sons Jamie (production and guitar) and Peter Jr. (bass) are joined by high-caliber guests like the Smiths' Johnny Marr and Carlos O'Connell of Fontaines D.C. There's also Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie's guest turn on "Do Not Resuscitate," one of several songs about getting older.

The album kicks off with "I Wanna Go With Dignity"; elsewhere, on "The Cleansing," Perrett ponders what comes after death. On "All That Time," he sings "All that time I thought I was having fun, just another wasted life ... took no time to question what we've done."

It all sounds like a barrel of laughs, doesn't it? But somber moments don't define this album; Perrett's cheer and wit carry the day. Far from being all doom and gloom, The Cleansing radiates optimism and joy—not in a naïve, rose-colored– glasses sort of way but through well-crafted songs that simply reflect a life with ups and downs, challenges and rewards.

The precise recording by Barry Grint and Peter's son Jamie Perrett gives the music punch and clarity, and the songs never overstay their welcome; most run around four minutes.—Phil Brett

The Blasters: Over There: Live at the Venue, London – The Complete Concert
Liberation Hall LIB-5193 (auditioned on LP). 2024. The Blasters, Chris Morris, Antone DeSantis, prods.; Pat Burnette, Nigel Miles, engs.
Performance ****½
Sonics ***½

As a part of L.A.-based reissue label RockBeat Records, Liberation Hall has recently reissued a set of live albums on vinyl. Not all of them are good. Although it's an enthusiastic set of covers, the Flamin' Groovies' Let It Rock: Live from the San Francisco Civic Center 1980 is a radio broadcast; it sounds thin and unbalanced. Southern Jam, New York 1978, from Dickey Betts's muscular post-Allmans band Great Southern, is better. It includes the hits "Blue Sky" and "Ramblin' Man," but it's another radio broadcast, and the sound is still squashed and dynamically limited.

The standout among the Liberation Hall reissues is a highly charged album from the Blasters: Over There, Live at the Venue, London – the Complete Concert. Originally released on Slash/Warner Brothers in 1982 as a six-song mini-LP, it has been expanded to include the full concert of 23 songs. Fronted by the brothers Alvin—madcap Phil on vocals, Dave on lead guitar—the band is anchored by bassist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman. What's most special here is the presence of New Orleans legend Lee Allen, the tenor saxophonist, who joins baritone horn player Steve Berlin. Pianist Gene Taylor, always a big part of the Blasters' sound, including here, was omitted from the players' list on first pressings, an error subsequently corrected.

Nearly all the tunes from their rockin' self-titled debut are here, most notably "American Music," "Marie, Marie," and "Stop the Clock." The album is fleshed out with revved-up versions of Jerry Lee Lewis's "High School Confidential" and the Allen showpiece "Walkin' with Mr. Lee." The band is tight, focused, and playing on a hot razor's edge throughout. Because this set was recorded by the Island Records Mobile Unit, the sound is good for a 1980s live album.—Robert Baird

Inhaler: Open Wide
Polydor Records 0602475441297 (auditioned as LP). 2025. Kid Harpoon, prod.; Brian Rajaratnam, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****

Supporting big touring acts like Harry Styles, Pearl Jam, and Arctic Monkeys has had a real impact on Inhaler. Open Wide, the Dublin quartet's new album, bursts with newfound confidence. This music should be a treat for anyone who loves a wide range of music, from '70s glam rock to early-2000s alternative rock. Give credit to producer Kid Harpoon, known for his work with Styles and Florence and the Machine; he helped Inhaler get to this self-assured new stage. The record glistens with a bright, peppy sound that evokes Kings of Leon but with a pop edge.

Building on the band's two earlier albums, 2021's It Won't Always Be Like This (which reached #1 on the UK and Irish album charts) and 2023's Cuts & Bruises, Open Wide carries over Inhaler's anthemic, guitar-driven, arena-rock approach. The Smiths and the Cure have clearly inspired the band, but front man Eli Hewson is the son of Bono's U2, and it comes through. The Irish superstars' influence can be heard on more than one track, often (unsurprisingly) in the sound of the lead vocals. Songs like "Still Young" stomp forward with the kind of European majesty that permeated much of U2's early material.

Inhaler manages to control the bombast. "Your House"'s pop elements, including sweet backing vocals, keep things loose and playful. All the same, the band is hardly short on depth, which comes to the fore on deceptively simple, hard-hitting songs such as "The Charms." Synths often give Inhaler's songs a soft lift. Close listening reveals that each player's part is precise and razor sharp, like an albuterol-charged breath of fresh air.

I did occasionally wish for more variety. At times the music sputters toward the monotonous, and not all electro-dance elements hit home. But when solid rock elements anchor the music, Inhaler's potential seems endless.—Ray Chelstowski

Ray Charles: Best of Country & Western
Tangerine TRC22481 (LP). 2024. Charles and Sid Feller, orig. prods.; Johnny Cue, Al Schmitt, Michael Graves, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ****

After leaving his first label, Atlantic Records, Ray Charles signed with ABC-Paramount in a deal that gave him the right of ownership of all his master recordings. This was rare at the time. He was drawn to the lyrics of what he called "hillbilly" songs and their commonalities with the blues. Following his instincts, instead of writing new music, he pursued this interest.

Ray Charles's Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was a shock—for many a crazed anomaly—when it was released in 1962. It is now thought of as perhaps his finest studio session, challenged only by Volume 2, released later that year.

Reissued many times, singly and together, Charles's country albums are now part of a five-album group reissued together on the reactivated Tangerine label. The set includes Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, plus Volume 2 (both from 1962), Country and Western Meets Rhythm and Blues (1965), Crying Time (1966), and a new one, Best of Country & Western.

Newly mastered for the Best of from digital files by noted historic audio engineer Michael Graves, who has worked with Dust-to-Digital, Analog Africa, and, more recently, Omnivore Records, with lacquers cut by Jeff Powell, Best of is an intelligent cherry picking of the best of Charles's 1960s country & western albums. This 13-track album contains Charles's transcendent readings of "Your Cheatin' Heart," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Ring of Fire," "Together Again," and "Crying Time" from the album of the same name. All five Tangerine albums are pressed at New Jersey's IRP (Independent Record Pressing) and reasonably priced at $25.99. These are not high-end pressings, but they're reasonably quiet, and Graves's work is audibly exemplary. Also available (at bandcamp.com) on CD or as a 16/44.1 digital download.—Robert Baird

Teddy Swims: I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2)
Warner Records 093624853145 (LP). 2025. Julian Bunetta, prod.; Harrison Tate, eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ****

Teddy Swims launched his career by tirelessly working the talk show circuit as a guest performer, showing off his talents to a wide range of audiences. His genre-bending sound is difficult to define, though his early influences definitely leaned soul: His father introduced him to Marvin Gaye, Al Green, et al. during a Georgia-based childhood.

Swims started his professional career playing all kinds of music, from alternative rock to hair metal. On his previous album, I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1), Swims mined vintage R&B and Motown to terrific neo-soul effect. Part 2 adds pop and country to the mix, further demonstrating the seeming limitlessness of his range. Swims and producer Julian Bunetta found writers, collaborators, and songs that bring to life themes that have long dominated his music: love, infidelity, and heartbreak. At the center of the sound are Swims's rich vocals. At times he delivers them with the throaty power of Teddy Pendergrass. The album opens with an Adele-like march, "Not Your Man," in which he matches her vocal power with an authority that is similarly declarative.

In other songs, Swims takes things way down to a D'Angelo croon. "Your Kind of Crazy" is a classic soul ballad that he delivers with breezy, intoxicating ease.

On the country-infused track "Guilty," a powerhouse anthem, it finally all comes together—all influences merge into a soulful amalgam. The song combines acoustic and electric guitars with a percussive low end that clicks along like a boot spur through a saloon. When the chorus opens wide, soaring, the song's bottom remains firmly planted on the floorboards.

Fresh and modern, I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2) builds carefully on what worked so well on its predecessor, demonstrating that Swims's blockbuster hit "Lose Control" wasn't a fluke.—Ray Chelstowski