Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 05/10/2005
Two years separated
Rank and File's acclaimed debut album,
Sundown, and 1984's follow-up,
Long Gone Dead, and the band had gone through some major changes in the interim. Guitarist
Alejandro Escovedo left the group to form
the True Believers, and drummer
Slim Evans had also parted ways with the band, leaving vocalists and songwriters
Chip Kinman and
Tony Kinman to record
Long Gone Dead with a band of veteran session players, including
Tom Petty drummer
Stan Lynch, former
Seatrain fiddler
Richard Greene, and multi-instrumentalist
Peter Grant, who'd previously picked with
Guy Clark and
the Incredible String Band. The result was a considerably lusher and more
pop-oriented album than
Sundown. While the band's maintained its
country cred with tunes like
"It Don't Matter" and a revved-up cover of
Lefty Frizzell's
"I'm an Old Old Man" that sounded like
the Flying Burrito Brothers at full gallop, most of
Long Gone Dead found the band moving away from its
Bakersfield-influenced sound, as evidenced in the
Motown-styled guitar figures on
"Saddest Girl in the World," the
Byrds-ian feel of
"Sound of the Rain" (a tune that dated back to the Kinmans' days in
the Dils), and the polished and hooky arrangement and production of
"Tell Her I Love Her." The band also seemed to be a bit less interested in working-class politics than on
Sundown, with only
"John Brown" matching the rabble-rousing vibe of the debut, though there are flashes of their populist stance scattered through a few other songs. While a more ambitious and musically diverse album than
Sundown,
Long Gone Dead just doesn't have the same tight focus and sharp impact of the debut, though the consistent strength of the songwriting is impressive and the high points are impressive indeed.
~Mark Deming, All Music Guide
Cart 0 items
Listen
