Happy Rhodes - Warpaint

Release Information

Aural Gratification - AGCD 0017 - 1991

Personnel

Happy Rhodes - vocals, keyboards, percussion
Kevin Bartlett - keyboards, percussion, guitars, additional heavy breathing
Bob van Detta - bass ('Warpaint')
Elizabeth Jones - violin ('Lay Me Down')
Martha Waterman - keyboards ('In Hiding')
Mitch Elrod - additional vocals ('Wrong Century')

Production

Produced by Kevin Bartlett & Happy Rhodes

Track Listing

Waking Up (Rhodes)
Feed the Fire (Rhodes)
Murder (Rhodes)
To Live in Your World (Rhodes)
Phobos (Rhodes)
Wrong Century (Rhodes)
Lay Me Down (Rhodes)
Terra Incognita (Rhodes)
All Things (Mia ia io) (Rhodes)
Words Weren't Made for Cowards (Rhodes)
Warpaint (Rhodes)
In Hiding (Rhodes)

Comments

For me there is no doubt that Warpaint is Happy's seminal work (to date!^*). On this album in particular I think that Happy's vision of how her songs should sound like on record was most well realised. All of Happy's albums have some wonderful songs on them, but on the earlier albums the simple voice+guitar arrangements lack variety and some of the cheesy synth contributions are a little unfortunate. On Warpaint there are none of those limitations: the arrangements are varied in their instrumentation and carefully chosen to suit each song. It may be my imagination, but I also think that Happy's voice was more beautifully captured on tape with this recording than heretofore. For me, this is the first of Happy's albums to sound fully professional in every aspect. And her songs and her voice are so good that they deserve this level of presentation. The two subsequent albums do not seem to have kept up the same high standard, though only marginally so in the case of Equipoise. With those albums, as with the first four, I can imagine how they could have been done better in some ways. Warpaint is as close to perfection in popular music as I expect to hear in my life.

(Review by Steve Fagg)

* This review was written before the release of Many Worlds Are Born Tonight.