The Stan Ridgway

Even though he'll always be best known as the original frontman for Wall of Voodoo who brought a skewed, spaghetti western sensibility to new wave in the early ‘80s, Stan Ridgway has been a solo singer/songwriter for a lot longer than his WoV tenure, having released his first solo album in 1986. There's always been a sort of Raymond Chandler/film noir feeling to Ridgway's narratives, and that remains true on Neon Mirage…

Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys is a compilation album of sea shanties performed by artists representing a variety of genres, ranging from pop musicians like Sting and Bryan Ferry, to folk musicians, including Richard Thompson and Martin Carthy.

The 1986 compilation is released on CD for the first time. The compilation was originally issued in August 1986 and was a reasonably strong outing featuring hits of the day such as Peter Gabriel‘s ‘Sledgehammer’, the Pet Shop Boys ‘Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)’, Wham!‘s last single ‘The Edge of Heaven’, Bowie‘s ‘Absolute Beginners’, a-ha‘s ‘Hunting High and Low’, Simply Red‘s ‘Holding Back The Years’ and ‘bonus track’ Queen‘s ‘A Kind of Magic’.

Shifting further away from the frantic blues and punkabilly than on their last album, the Shack Shakers morph into a more European, even Gypsy approach on much of this release. The band's third effort retains all the wild-eyed, frenetic, unhinged qualities that have by now become its calling card. Adding occasional piano, fiddle, horns, and banjo doesn't soften or dilute the overdriven intensity. Rather, it is heightened, as the barely half-hour disc careens and bounces along so breathlessly that most listeners wouldn't want the album to last any longer. Lead singer/harp player J.D. Wilkes remains the main attraction; he writes or co-writes all the songs and his often demonic vocals and frenzied harp shenanigans make this somewhat of a one-man project with lots of guests.