UK Import
I first discovered Edmunds through his work with Nick Lowe in Rockpile. Both Lowe and Edmunds come from the pub rock tradition, but Edmunds likes his cajun/bluegrass/country western music a little too much at times. As a result, his roots rock and pop songs are top-notch while the rest of his stuff sounds like CCR filler to me. As you can imagine, this makes for a pair of uneven albums here. Eclectic, if you will. Edmunds produced D.E. 7th himself, but reached out to ELO chief Jeff Lynne to produce two songs on Information, updating the sound considerably. On the whole, I prefer the latter album. Because they have such different sounds, they make for a strange single CD pairing (also, I'm subtracting points for subpar liner notes).
Album chart peaks:
- US Billboard Top 200: D.E.7th #46, Information #51
- Billboard Rock: D.E.7th #24, Information #9
- CashBox: D.E. 7th #71, Information #61
Tracks: 22 songs in under 70 minutes.
D.E. 7th: this album starts off strong with Springsteen's From Small Things Big Things Come and NRBQ's Me And The Boys. Other keepers include Generation Rumble, Others Guys Girls, Paula Meet Jeanne, and Chuck Berry's Dear Dad. I'll pass on the rest.
Information: the best song on the CD is Slipping Away, which was written by Lynne and, not surprisingly, sounds just like an ELO song. Other stand outs include the title track and covers of NRBQ's I Want You Bad and J. Geils Band's Wait. I usually skip The Watch On My Wrist and The Shape I'm In.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Thinking back to high school, I remember the Information album (maybe I borrowed it from Jim?), especially the song Slipping Away. But I remember it with the U.S. album cover:
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