Album Review: The Wallflowers - Rebel, Sweetheart (2005)

The Wallflowers - Rebel, Sweetheart (2005)

The Wallflowers have always been underrated, even during their Bringing Down The Horse (1996) days, but even more so they are never given the deserved credit of being more versatile then they let on. It's true that they've always followed the folk-rock blueprint, but if you truly listen to each album; you'll realize that they have a more varied pallet then most of their peers. With the band's fifth album, Rebel, Sweetheart, this revelation might actually dawn on people. While 2002's Red Letter Days is arguable their most musically diverse album, most listeners would think that the album is an exception. With this latest release, there's no denying that they treat each album as its own entity. This time, the Wallflowers come out blazing with a political force that is both inspiring and humbling, and a set of songs that grows on you with every listen. The album opens with the fiery "Days Of Wonder," which blisters into "The Passenger," on of the most interesting and irresistible songs in their catalogue. The rush continues to swell through the first single "Beautiful Side Of Somewhere" and "Here He Comes (Confessions Of A Drunken Marionette)" (the most powerful Wallflowers rocker since "Some Flowers Bloom Dead") finally melting into the slower "We're Already There." Needless to say, this is possibly the most consistent and engaging opening to a Wallflowers album since Bringing Down The Horse. The album is full of excellent songs, both rockers (like the pseudo-punkish "Back To California" and the chugging "All Things New Again") and ballads, not to mention the album's haunting centerpiece "God Says Nothing Back." Not only does this song essentially summarize the whole album, it speaks out in prose that few politically charged songs do these days. This is arguably the most profound song they have ever recorded and it will resonate after the first listen. While this may not have the immediate appeal of the classic Bringing Down The Horse, or the sonic and lyrical genius of (Breach) (2000), Rebel, Sweetheart displays and urgency not found on any other Wallflowers records; this is a call to arms, and the band has never sounded more alive, nor rocked as hard.

4/5

“Adam took the apple / I was not involved”

S. McSmoke-Smoke