RSSWreckless Eric [extended]
- The Whole Wide World [Stiff, 1979] A-
- Big Smash [Stiff/Epic, 1980] B+
- Bungalow Hi [Southern Domestic, 2005]
- Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby [Stiff, 2008] *
- A Working Museum [Southern Domestic, 2012] A-
- Construction Time & Demolition [Southern Domestic, 2018] A-
- Transience [Southern Domestic, 2019] ***
- Leisureland: The 2023 Wreckless Eric Album [Tapete, 2023] *
See Also:
Consumer Guide Reviews:
The Whole Wide World [Stiff, 1979]
Like the Only Ones' Special View, Eric's U.S. debut sifts the duds out of two years' worth of U.K. singles and LPs to arrive at a stylistically unified compilation album--though the thirteen tracks list seven different producers, they cohere, because Eric hasn't had time to outgrow his own impulses. The voice mewls and scratches like a cat in a broom closet, but the melodies get out, and the lyrics are a lot less hapless than they pretend to be: beneath the girl-shy fool lurks an ironic paranoid of devastating subtlety. A-
Big Smash [Stiff/Epic, 1980]
A strange sort of double album, half of it the compilation indie Stiff stiffed with last year, the other a supposed commercialization. The theme is "Pop Song," which begins with a murmured "Put it in your mouth" before moving on to "Better write a pop record/With a money-spinning hook/If the muse don't hit you/You're off the books." 'Tis said the spunk has gone out of the lad, but though he does wax lyrical at times--I like the one where he admires the style of a girl handing in her tube ticket--he's as rude and scrawny as ever. Maybe the new stuff isn't altogether fabulous, but Stiff led with a compilation because he's mortal. If you count yourself among the millions who didn't purchase The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric, do so now--you'll hardly notice the pop songs' rough sheen. If you count yourself among the thousands who did, ask yourself how much you love him and act accordingly. I love him moderately myself. Grade for new disc only. B+
Bungalow Hi [Southern Domestic, 2005]
Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby: Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby [Stiff, 2008]
Recorded at their home studio in the south of France, just like Exile on Main Street, only without a drummer, a producer, or an engineer ("Please Be Nice to Her," "Men in Sandals"). *
Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby: A Working Museum [Southern Domestic, 2012]
Three by Eric with two excellent, four by Amy with all excellent and one or two on her life list, four collaborations with woozier results except on the penultimate "Tropical Fish," which is blown away forthwith by Amy's "Do You Remember That," the love song of the year if "Not Just When We Kiss" isn't. The couple share a sense of detail that grounds even the vaguer songs--Sanskrit tattoo, Kajagoogoo records, sombrero too big for the overhead. Plus, oh yeah, their scrabbling, high-talented, headstrong lives. A-
Construction Time & Demolition [Southern Domestic, 2018]
A few fine songs peek out from these 11 tracks--the bridge-to-nowhere gentrification threnody "Gateway to Europe," the fanboy expose "Wow & Flutter," the unraveling autobiography "40 Years." So do fine chants like "The Two of Us," a title he yells 19 times. But note as well instrumentals designated "Mexican Fenders #1" and "#2," a guitar-not-car metaphor that evokes the shambolic fuzz and droll electronic detritus he smears everywhere. A deliberately unkempt whole whose stray noises will make you chuckle against your suspended judgment throughout. A-
Transience [Southern Domestic, 2019]
Half a dozen riffs durable enough to support a jam of sorts, many attached to strong first lines, perhaps three of which unfold into full-fledged songs. ("Father of the Man," "Strange Locomotion") ***
Leisureland: The 2023 Wreckless Eric Album [Tapete, 2023]
As the title hopes you're aware, Eric Goulding has his own cockeyed rock signature complete with cockeyed fans who'll always welcome a refill please ("Southern Rock," "Drag Time") *