Review Summary: An Underrated Introduction to a Great Group
Headed by Jakob Dylan,
The Wallflowers debuted in 1992 with a self-titled album that drew reasonable critical praise but went almost completely unnoticed by the public. The original group almost completely broke up, and when
The Wallflowers reformed, only Dylan and keyboardist Rami Jaffee remained.
The new quintet (assisted by a few guest performers) put together “Bringing Down the Horse”. Propelled by singles “SixthAvenue Heartache”, “One Headlight”, and others, it met with remarkable worldwide success. The album, consisting of 11 straightforward, classical rock songs, was notably underrated by critics, many of whom slapped on good-but-not-great 3/5 ratings. However, “Bringing Down the Horse” is more than just a financial smash, and its strength comes not only from the popular hits that gave the group national attention but from the style and energy prevalent in each and every track.
From its opening guitar riff, “One Headlight” feels like a great song. The lyrics, infamously puzzling, suggest mourning over a the death of a companion. Jakob’s voice is immediately sympathetic, and his line “So long ago I don’t remember when/That’s when they say I lost my only friend” provokes genuine interest. Each verse builds up extraordinarily well, and the chorus section, which expands a bit each time, is instantly classic, both in terms of the vocals (just listen to Jakob cry out “Hey hey hey”) and the richness of the accompanying music. “One Headlight” deservedly topped the charts and may be the best song the group has made to date.
5/5
Next up is “Sixth Avenue Heartache”, the Wallflower’s first hit single. I’m not sure if
The Wallflowers made the right choice by opening with their two strongest tracks; the album is certainly top-loaded. All four of the group’s successful singles are in the album’s first five tracks, and as a result the second half of “Bringing Down the Horse”, though quite good, is a fair step down. Anyway, “Sixth Avenue Heartache” is another all-out classic, one of my all-time favorite songs, period. The combination of a sweet drum intro and a just plain amazing slide guitar part make this song immediately lovable. It’s an absolute pleasure to listen to this song, even if nobody will ever really know why a black line is being drawn on someone. It’s a big, energetic, down-to-earth piece, one that never gets old.
5/5
“Bleeders” breaks up the singles, and it holds up to them quite well. Sung with an edgy harshness, the song comes across as a rebellious outcry, with lines like “If they catch me ever/they’ll throw me back forever” suggesting, at least on a literal level, a fleeing criminal. The base part here is superb.
4.5/5
The cute “Three Marlenas” is a perfect follow up to the vigor of the earlier songs. It’s a clever piece, and it very effectively draws a picture of the titular character “It doesn’t matter where the money went/It wasn’t how she paid her rent”. A lot of fun, and a nice slowdown.
4.5/5
“The Difference” is one of the loudest song the group has ever made, so much so that Dylan has to shout as loud as he can to be heard over the drums and electric guitars. It’s very much on par with “Sixth Avenue Heartache” (although not quite as good as that classic), with it’s fast pace and amazing quality. This song fills me up with glee every time I hear it.
5/5
“Invisible City”, as the softest song on the album, brings things to a dead-halt, but with grace. It’s a much-needed breather filled with plenty of guitar riffs with lyrics like “The imitation of good faith/Is how you stumble upon hate” that really make you have to think.
4.5/5
“Laughing Out Loud” is a fun, upbeat, and wild song, but nothing special. It’s so full of energy that you just want to love it, but the song just doesn’t add anything to the album that hasn’t been covered by something better. Still, it’s an enjoyable, solid track, something that would have stood out on a lesser album.
4/5
“Josephine” is a pretty song that exists as The Wallflower’s only all-out dive into a relationship song on the album. The lyrics are splendid, particularly Dylan’s comparison of the taste of Josephine to that of tangerines. The change of pace in the middle works quite well, too; this is a dynamic, interesting song.
5/5
“God Don’t Make Lonely Girls” demonstrates the key problem with the album: too many traditional, straightforward, high-energy rock songs. Sure, the hits at the beginning are amazing, but when one comes along like “Laughing Out Loud” or, to a greater extent, “God Don’t Make Lonely Girls”, the listener has to begin to yawn. Yes, it’s fine, but we’ve already heard it a couple times. Don’t get me wrong, tracks like this are perfectly good, it’s just that “Bringing Down the Horse” could be a classic album with more songs as elaborate and complex as “One Headlight” and fewer like this one that are fun while they’re playing but leave nothing notable behind.
3/5
“Angels On My Bike” suffers from its similarity to “Laughing Out Loud” and “God Don’t Make Lonely Girls”, but I personally (just as an opinion) like it much more than both of those. The song benefits a great deal from a consistently great drum part, and the repeated “I can’t handle the care/I want, but I can't be there/While angel's a prayer” rocks.
4.5/5
The sweet “I Wish I Felt Nothing” brings the album to a perfect conclusion. The whole group plays this slow-paced gem just right, and the album ends on a bittersweet note.
5/5
In terms of song-by-song quality, this album easily warrants a 4.5/5 from me, but I think a 4/5 is more appropriate. As good as the songs are, there just isn’t enough variety, and the top-loading hurts a bit. Nearly every song, maybe all of them, take a verse-melody-verse-melody-verse-melody form. Still, it’s a great album, one that launched
The Wallflowers into fame.
As a final note, from “The Wallflowers” on every reviewer has (understandably) begun an analysis of a Wallflowers album by noting Jakob’s relation to his father and sometimes even making a comparison. This is unfair; Bob and Jakob’s group generally play completely different styles of music. Jakob had an opportunity with “Bringing Down the Horse” to cash in on his father’s name, but, to his credit, he refused to do so, hiding his name from the front or back of the album. Naive or not, I like to think that “Bringing Down the Horse” sold as well as it did because it was accomplished piece of work by a talented group of musicians.
