 World Party I had begun to more or less dismiss Karl Wallinger prior to Egyptology owing to sour tastes left over by 1994's Bang! Not that it was such a bad album – in fact, Bang! features sublime moments like "Kingdom Come" and "Is It Like Today?" But never before had the "Karl loves his influences" bug crawled up and down his sleeves so prominently. Not to mention an irritating and uncalled for preachiness scattered throughout. Egyptology still has its bouts of "Hey, this sounds vaguely like something else," but after I removed one of the many sticks from my ass, it ultimately just sounded like World Party. Excellent World Party at that. Originally released with a mouth-watering bonus "greatest hits" disc, Egyptology fairly quickly dropped out of public consciousness, largely blamable due to the demise of "The Enclave" label, whose American distribution roster included Belle & Sebastian and Sloan. What a shame, as Egyptology rises to the challenge of 1990s Goodbye Jumbo and sprints past its predecessors. The late-60s-meets-90s-live-studio-band vibe is a bit deceptive, as it's surely Karl multi-tracked on 90% of the instruments. Momentum stalls with a few patchy spots towards the middle, but the first part of the album builds up so incredibly that it almost feels natural to allow some leeway for typical Wallinger mellowness like the warbly album-closer "Always." "It Is Time" isn't quite the opener it thinks it is, and is as close to a "rockin' McCartney" mode that World Party gets (that's a good thing). "Call Me Up" comes out of nowhere and immediately raises questions whether it or "Put the Message in the Box" is Wallinger at his most pop-perfect. Short, hooky, succinct, catchy, and great Beatle brass. Guilty white man's bliss. "She's the One" is another near jaw-dropping moment – a straightforward piano ballad with a perfect level of sincerity – also very Stonesy. This of course not being a reference to Jim "Stonesy" Mulhearn, my freshman roommate, who coincidentally set his Coors Light on my Goodbye Jumbo CD once. Funny, Stonesy. I'm still bitter. It wouldn't be a Loud Bassoon review without mentioning "one songwriter syndrome," but this time around, Mr. Wallinger keeps everything fresh, and interesting enough to get past the curse of homogeny. The Swingle Singers-esque intro of "Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" provides a cool fade-in to Karl' vaguely eerie, vaguely Stones-ish romp about debunking dogma, or something like that. To be honest, I'm usually too caught up in the "music" to care about the "message" anyhow. Wait, KISS's "Lick It Up" is about what? Not about ice cream? Are you sure?
Review by Quinzio |