Yes, the long promised and seemingly never to be delivered follow up to Jeremy Gluck's legendary I Knew Buffalo Bill album that featured Rowland S Howard, Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks et al has finally arrived.
So was it worth the wait of 26 years for part two during which time almost everyone involved apart from Jeremy Gluck has died? Well if you're a fan of down beat bruised songs full of emotion and feeling then the answer is undoubtedly yes.
The album's artwork looks like it could have been painted by Robert Coyne's dad Kevin and appears to be a tribute to his album covers for Babble and Millionaires & Teddy Bears which is pretty cool.
As my I-tunes won't play it in the correct order I'll start at When Will Runs Out: a nice battered and bruised song that sounds like it has the loucheness of Dave Kusworth at his most focussed bringing us into this world of hurt as Will runs out.
Rainshowers reworks Wild Horses to great effect in that way that many great tunes should and do mutate into other great tunes over time so it's like a mild yet wild mutation that isn't at all disarming. Whether it will help to strengthen our faith is another matter entirely.
Memory Deluxe is gentle and laid back so much so that Jeremy sounds like he's trying to sing like Paddy McAloon of all people. This is the sort of song that will seep in over time; like much of this album it is a grower and something that will need to be heard a few times.
I Don't Need To Know is a nice little love song. It's quietly imploring and also far gentler than I was expecting.
We Will Fall Hard has Robert playing his guitar almost like it's a harp as well as some nice twangy sounds while at times sounding a bit like Hans Pukke's playing with Robert's Dad.
Nowhere has whisper/spoken lyrics over yet more gently insistent guitar as Jeremy gets angry at the false happiness of The Waltons and that apple pie America that is generally a lie. Having said that, this is all played and sung so gently that the anger only becomes apparent with careful listening to the (at times) quite disturbing lyrics.
Evelyn is a bitter song about the loss of love in a relationship that is just one more story from the darker side of life with minimal and sparse backing. It's unclear whether he wants Evelyn back or not.
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Old Father Death is the sort of rumination you'd expect from people who have seen so many of their friends depart too soon. It's sad and sepulchral and full of feeling; a great song with memories of all sorts of adventures in the dark underground. Sleeping Sleeping keeps the mood dark and desolate with tremulous guitar and strings a beautiful song.
The Extra Mile is more bitter questioning as to whether or not you should go the extra mile to keep that relationship going or not. Over a tune that sounds like a cross between JJ Cale and the gentler end of Chris Spedding's solo stuff.
Blood is the first song that really sounds like it could have been on the original Buffalo Bill album. It is also very much in line with the theme of loss of a relationship that permeates this album. Killer, with its attempts to get inside the mind of the killer, is also much more in the spirit of the original Buffalo Bill album and a very cool song indeed.
The new version of Episode In A town is mellower than the original, like they have moved from cheap blended whisky to a nice single malt in the intervening years. It features lovely spectral guitar playing make it almost a chill out song and it's very mellow, end of the evening music.
Late and Lonely evokes a single cowboy riding off into the western lands almost as the only survivor of some big battle and he is returning full of regret for what has happened and gratitude at having somehow survived. It leaves the listener wondering how long till the third installment comes along and who will still be around to listen to it.
This is a really cool album that undoubtedly reveals more of itself with each listening and needs to be played a lot to let it get inside your skin and mind a fitting follow up to a mythical album.
Flicknife Records online
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