I learned very quickly during my trip back through rock and roll that Elvis might have been the greatest, but he was not the best. His cultural impact is unmatched, and he is decidedly a talented singer and personality, but as far as the actual sound he put on the record, I'd take (spoiler alert) Gene Vincent, and plenty of others if I was willing to get a slightly different sound back.
Elvis's songs are split pretty cleanly between fast and slow: I've never liked his ballads overmuch, and here his fast songs don't bristle and pop as well as his finest moments. For example, there's nothing here that touches the Sun Sessions' immediacy. The session was legendary, but I expected the early albums proper to come closer than this to matching them.
In some ways, Elvis was the first pop sellout, doing what others did better, but in a more palatable way, both musically, and, let's face it, racially.
All that said, this is a perfectly good entry into the canon of early rock and roll, with bassy crooning, punchy guitars, and jaunty beats throughout. I've just been a bit spoiled by finding it all in context 3.5/5
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment