The attraction of an album like this, as with so many in my treasured collection of oddball CDs, is that it presses its nose so very hard against the question of how popular music can be so called, even when it isn't widely known. Early albums don’t present a problem: not enough people have had chance to listen. But when fourth and fifth album are released and expectations of a breakthrough remain stolidly dormant, it becomes clear that persistence in the popular idiom is in itself a statement of faith, identity and personal necessity. This seems to me like a virtue in its own right.
Tim Browne has helped with production and a VINNY PECULIAR band featuring Mike Joyce, Bonehead and Ben Knott will be touring the songs in October and November. The faith is clearly shared in high places.
The album itself is dominated by VINNY's distinctive soul. Death, redemption, revenge, nihilism, antiheroism, atheism, wasted time, a failed muse and farewells provide the lyrical content. So it's just as well that there are beguiling tunes and uplifting riffs to carry us through the ordeals. When VINNY PECULIAR gives a song the title "Happiest Man In The World", it probably isn't a good idea to anticipate too much jolliness. There's less scope for confusion with "Vinny Peculiar Is Dead", "Too Late" and "Song For The Dead".
What we have here is a man who would love, but who sees much to be disappointed with. A man who would dance for joy and sing in the choir, but who is regularly let down by the institutions of Love and Affection. The words tell the bleak stories of the murdered Social Worker, the psychological damage wrought by the end of Summer, the procrastination of youth, and goodbyes. Balancing this melancholic outlook, the music does the decent thing and, at the best moments, transcends and transforms the pessimism.
"Lazy Bohemians" has a world class tune and skips along like a lost gem from the 60s. "Goodbye My Angry Friend" is ravishing, wordless valediction. "Batman" makes a fresh joy of the old three chord trick and unleashes a lovely chorus. "I'm useless at fighting, and I'm not that strong" they all join in. There are guitar breaks and magical sounds all over the place. Kiss Me (I'm a Social Worker) has a wonderfully loose feel that reminds me of Billy Jenkins (another favourite oddball renegade!).
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It is a very patchy album though. The production ideas are fitful and sometimes despatched with less care than the songs deserve. "S.A.D." for example has a range of instruments added in - but they do sound added in, and they do seem to come from circuit boards rather than real instruments. It’s busy and contrived without sounding lush or emotionally assertive. Here and there the main vocal could have been redone for better pitch, and on track one ("Vinny Peculiar is Dead") the rather crude echo isn’t very convincing as a voice from beyond the grave. Many of the uplifting moments (like the big guitar line on that opening song) are sounds borrowed from the past rather than fresh creations. The twin guitar lead break on "Social Worker" is very THIN LIZZY.
"Lost For Words" is a spoken-word piece with solemn intonation that owes more to poetry reading than hip hop perfomrance. Although it has a great line: "I need to find words that sit still" it follows it with the lamentable "and do not wave their knickers in the air". But it is nice to hear the name Richard Brautigan mentioned, and to be able to thrill to a deep clanging guitar line that could be Tom Petty or even Duane Eddy. The evocative clarinet part works well too. Nevertheless, in discussing the elusiveness of artistic completion, it draws attention to what seems to be my main problem with the album as a whole: production standards in the world surrounding Manchester are going up all the time, even at grassroots level, and "good enough" no longer sounds convincing.
That said, I'm still really excited by these sketches, first drafts and good ideas. I dearly want the finished work to be more coherent, more complete, more polished. It’s my problem, I know. But I think that other listeners will experience a similar sense of unfinished business.
www.myspace.com/vinnypeculiar
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