Search - Wes Hollywood Show :: The Girls Are Never Ending

Rock Is Dead, Long Live Rock

03/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Wes Hollywood Show's second full length record and follow up to Playing Favourites blends Beatles sized hooks with new wave know-how. Imagine if the Replacements hooked up with Elvis Costello's armed forces and tried to take the world by storm. Or if Brian Wilson awoke from hibernation in 1972 and produced Iggy Pop's Raw Power. Intricate melodies blend here with loud, taut guitar and lush harmonies. Arranged with dramatic flair and densely punctuated with Hollywood's peeved-to-vengeful wordplay, each song stakes the band's claim for stardom. "Weston Super-Mare" and "Under Your Bed" are pure slices of summertime pop; sweet as a lover's sigh, yet tinged with the lament a doomed affair. Fiery post-punk workouts like "H-Bomb" and "Nehi Crush" flourish Hollywood's now patented brand of surly wit and gleeful sarcasm. "Prepare to Qualify" and "She's Gonna Let You Go" truly mix the black with the tan; Hollywood and new lead guitarist-in-residence Mark Talent purr over Jason Styx's hopped up drums, pledging devotion to girls they'll never meet-or wish they never met. Fueled by the precision bass of Patrick Thornbury, "Growing Up Simple," and "Goodtime Girl" channel Hollywood's aggression into new emotional vistas, while the mod-rock corker, "There Go the Girls," brings things to a smashing, well-wrought conclusion. All in all, a bloody masterpiece. Simply brilliant."