Essex Hideaway

Essex Hideaway Artist: Kimberley Rew
Label: Bongo Beat Records
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 767000197221
EAN: 0767000197221
ASIN: B0006V772W


Release Date: 2005-01-11

Essex Hideaway


Related Categories:

General General
Categories | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Jangle Pop Jangle Pop
Categories | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Britain Britain
Categories | British Isles | Europe | International | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music
Pop Rock Pop Rock
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

  1. Bless This Album
  2. Phoenixstowe
  3. Short Smart Haircut
  4. Jerome K Jerome
  5. Tourists Of Insanity
  6. Arterial Road
  7. That's Soft Boy
  8. Ballad Of The Lone Guitarist
  9. Your Mother Was Born In That House
  10. Essex Hideaway
  11. Even Shorter Haircut
  12. Epilogue

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Amazon.com

Kimberley Rew's third solo album, <I>Essex Hideaway</I>, is his most consistent, his most fully produced, and by far his most nostalgic. It's a perfect, loving pastiche of late-'60s British pop rock. For the first time in his solo career, Rew is the only Soft Boy present on the record. Instead, for backup, he relies on some fellow Waves alums, as well as on former Kinks keyboardist Ian Gibbons and ace session drummer Dave Mattacks. <I>Essex Hideaway</I> opens with a tongue-in-cheek organ-and-choir invocation, "Bless This Album," and then dives right into what may be the highlight of the CD, "Phoenixstowe." With its stacatto, quarter-note piano, high backing vocals, and Mellotron, it's a blend of Paul McCartney and Ray Davies circa 1967, with an extended psychedelic guitar solo to leave no doubt that it's still Rew's affair. There's more where that comes from, too: "Short Smart Haircut" (featuring a juicy kazoo solo) and "That's Soft Boy" (with its McCartneyesque chord changes) both recall the music hall of the Kinks and the Small Faces. The title track follows McCartney into his domesticated '70s as Rew sings of "whisking" his love to their "Essex hideaway." And Rew doesn't neglect English folk, offering up the acoustic-guitar-and-Mellotron waltz "Arterial Road," a <I>Village Green Preservation Society</I>-like lament for an England that no longer exists.

One could level the criticisms at Rew that the record is too short (it's not much over 30 minutes) and that, as on "Phoenixstowe," he has a propensity to take what are essentially short songs and fill them out with extended solos nearly as long again as the songs themselves. In less capable hands, this might have been a bad decision, but Kimberley Rew is one of the few guitarists of the last 30 years with both the composition skill <I>and</I> the chops to get away with it. As for playing time, <I>Magical Mystery Tour</I>, <I>Ogden's Nut Gone Flake</I>, and <I>Village Green</I> run for just about as long. Sometimes less is more! <I>--Benjamin Lukoff</I>

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Fun melodic CD from the former Soft Boy and Wave.......2007-03-09

Got to disagree with the other review here--Kimberly Rew's perfect power pop is every bit as good but different when compared to his former boss in The Soft Boys (Robyn Hitchcock). As with Rew's first two solo albums, this album is filled with infectious hooks and great melodies. My only complaint--it's a bit too short (a bit over 30 minutes)and is a bit of a trifle when compared to Rew's first couple of solo albums.

Personally, I'd love to hear Rew co-write a couple of songs with Hitchcock for any new incarnation of the Soft Boys. Rew may lack the strange edginess of Hitchcock but he more than makes up for it with his great guitar playing and rich melodies. I'd recommend this to fans of the Soft Boys (although keep in mind it's not quite as twisted as anything Robyn comes up with), Katrina and the Waves (Rew's other band where he wrote the best and most effective material)and fans of Paul McCartney, Jason Falkner and power pop.

3 1/2 stars.

4 out of 5 stars

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