![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/wanderlust.jpg\")
Roch Parisen\u2019s review of Wanderlust\u2019s 1995 debut name-checks some useful touchpoints to place the Nashville band\u2019s music in context: The Searchers, Beau Brummels, Brds and Bay City Rollers. For music lovers of a particular perspective, that\u2019s enough to gain their attention. And though I myself never heard Prize<\/i> at the time, it\u2019s apparently held in high esteem by those who did.<\/p>\n
A pair of LPs for acclaimed power pop label Not Lame followed, but large-scale success did not. Even an opening slot on a tour with The Who didn\u2019t catapult them into the big leagues (see also: Willie Nile). The band certainly had the goods, with great musicianship, razor-sharp hooks and memorable tunes. But faced with the usual obstacles — record company problems, internal dissension \u2013 Wanderlust broke up.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to present day. Main songwriter Scott Sax recently stumbled across an old DAT \u2013 remember those? \u2013 containing demos of songs written shortly after the release of Prize<\/em>, a time which (it\u2019s now clear) the band was still firing on all cylinders.<\/p>\n So he did what one does in fairytale stories: he put the old band back together. Today Ron Bonfiglio is known as a solo artist and sometime Brian Wilson musical associate; he returned along with drummer Jim Cavanaugh and bassist Mark Getten to record new parts on top of those demo recordings. But this is no ghostly \u201cFree as a Bird.\u201d Instead the result is All a View<\/i>, a superb collection of songs that don\u2019t scream \u201c1990s\u201d any more than, say, Material Issue or Jellyfish. (Yeah, my<\/i> turn to drop some names for context.)<\/p>\n In places, All a View<\/em> approaches the ambitious progressive pop of Jellyfish; \u201c2 Million Pieces\u201d is one such song. \u201cCorduroy Moon\u201d may remind some listeners of The Grays. Bonfiglio\u2019s \u201cTrick of the Light\u201d (not<\/i> a John Entwistle\/Who cover) makes this listener think of Michael Penn or Matthew Sweet.<\/p>\n \u201cCritical Mind\u201d has echoes of The Motors\u2019 \u201cThat What John Said\u201d and\/or John Lennon\u2019s \u201c(Just Like) Starting Over.\u201d The gentle \u201cBored and Blue\u201d moves in a pleasing country-rock direction that \u2013 thank goodness \u2013 feels more like Poco than Eagles. \u201cInspiration\u201d is a chiming heartland rock-pop tune of the first order; it may conjure thoughts of Gin Blossoms. “Something Happens” feels like London Town<\/em>-era Wings. The opening\/title track has the grandeur and majesty of an epic album-closer. And \u201cBlack Currant Jam\u201d is a snaky, minor-key rocker with faint echoes of Warners era Badfinger. All in all, All a View<\/i> is an excellent album, timeless and timely all at once, and recommended.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a criticism of All a View<\/i>, it\u2019s the packaging. The cover art \u2013 very, very<\/i> reminiscent of The Grays\u2019 Ro Sham Bo<\/i>, as it happens \u2013 is lovely enough, but the rest of it looks and feels like the apartment wall of an obsessed homicide detective (or serial killer), and \u2013 as a result of that \u2013 kudos to anyone who can figure out the track listing without putting the CD in a computer. (Yes, the track list is included, but you can easily overlook it.) Regardless, don\u2019t let that discourage you from checking out this fine album. Let\u2019s hope that Sax and his band mates stay together and give us more of a similar quality.<\/p>\n A<\/i>ll a View<\/i> is shortlisted for consideration in my end-of year Best Albums roundup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Roch Parisen\u2019s review of Wanderlust\u2019s 1995 debut name-checks some useful touchpoints to place the Nashville band\u2019s music in context: The Searchers, Beau Brummels, Brds and Bay City Rollers. For music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,62,65],"tags":[4622],"class_list":["post-21452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-wanderlust","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21455,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21452\/revisions\/21455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}