Happy Rhodes - Equipoise

Release Information

Aural Gratification - AGCD 0019 - 1993

Personnel

Happy Rhodes - vocals, percussion, keys
Kevin Bartlett - guitar, percussion, keys, bass, multidimensional bleedthrough, electric gulls
Chuck D'Aloia - guitar
Andy Wyman - bagpipe
Mark Foster - snare drum
Ray Jung - fretless bass
Kelly Bird - additional vocals
Martha Waterman - piano

Production

Produced by Kevin Bartlett, Happy Rhodes

Track Listing

Runners (Rhodes)
He Will Come (Rhodes)
The Flight (Rhodes)
Out Like a Lamb (Rhodes)
Save Our Souls (Rhodes)
Closer (Rhodes)
Temporary & Eternal (Rhodes)
Cohabitants (Rhodes)
Play the Game (Rhodes)
Mother Sea (Rhodes)
I Say (Rhodes)

Comments

A worthy successor to the seminal Warpaint, which maintains the same high standard of songwriting, performance and (for the most part) production. The songs are as good as ever and Happy's wonderful voice is still captured well but, to my ears, the arrangements have not always been so carefully thought through and the production is sometimes notably less inventive than that of its predecessor (tending to rely overly on a few stock techniques, such as flying in a curtain of string synth filler to shore up a weak arrangement).

In spite of my reservations that the arrangements of some tracks lacked the care and attention they deserved, this was for most of 1993 my favourite album of the year. Some of the songs number among Happy's best ever. On first hearing attention is grabbed by the energy and momentum of the vampire diptych 'He Will Come' and 'The Flight' and by the pointed lyrics of 'Save Our Souls'. Further acquaintance brings the qualities of 'Closer', 'Play the Game', and 'Out Like a Lamb' to the fore. All-in-all an accomplished and rewarding album to listen to time and time again.
(Review by Steve Fagg)