The 1999 version of
L.A. Guns consisted of
Jizzy Pearl (ex.
Love/Hate) on vocals, Johnny Crypt on bass and original members Steve Riley (drums) plus Tracii Guns (guitars).
"Shrinking Violet" reflects a turbulent period of
L.A. Guns career. After Phil Lewis, Mick Cripps and Kelly Nickels left the band various members played in
L.A. Guns. Chris Van Dahl did the vocals on the last album, but "Shrinking Violet" features
Jizzy Pearl's characteristic pipes.
The internal problems might be the reason for the musical change compared to the debut. 70's inspired songs with tempo variation replace the naive cock rock. Some of the songs have several moods and atmospheres. This is masterly performed in album highlight
Barbed Wire. The 6-minute song has an acoustically verse with Jizzy performing some mellow vocals. The chorus has an atmospheric mood. After the amazing Tracii Guns guitar solo the song goes up-tempo but ends very mellow with an acoustic guitar.
Most songs on "Shrinking Violet" are quite good. Automatically you have high expectations when listening to an album that bears the
L.A. Guns name. However, some tracks are lacking some hooks and skilled songwriting. Especially songs like
It's Hard and
Big Lil' Thing are a bit too primitive and lacking the
L.A. Guns touch.
The best working songs are the mellow tracks like the mentioned
Barbed Wire. Another outstanding track is
Decide, which also has that 70's song structure. The song is changing pace between an acoustic verse and a great chorus with very
Led Zeppelinish guitars. The chord progression is very alike Zeppelin's "Kashmir". Speaking of
Led Zeppelin it is no surprise that
L.A. Guns rounds off the album with a cover version of
Led Zeppelin's
How Many More Times. Jizzy is doing a great Robert Pant imitation with echo effect on his voice. Tracii Guns just keeps progressing as a guitar player. He is playing some great solos and is very varied in his playing. Listen to the Heavy Blues Rocker
Bad Whiskey where Tracii's blues licks accompanies
Jizzy Pearl's boozy voice. .
Overall this album is very alike some of the great 70's records, where songs had several facets.
Gilby Clarke has produced the album and he has provided
L.A. Guns with a raw sound.
The best way to describe the style on "Shrinking Violet" is when you file the album in your cd-collection. You put "Shrinking Violet" right between your other
L.A. Guns cd's and your
Love/Hate cd's.
Written by
Michael Sunday, October 20, 2002
Show all reviews by MichaelRatingsMichael: 6.5/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
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