Having already been dubbed "America's greatest bar band" by no less than the venerated New York Times, Illinois' IKE REILLY ASSASSINATION'S lethal and literate rock'n'roll takes no prisoners as it veers wildly across the 27 songs comprising this sprawling, but magnificent 2-albums-on-1 CD introduction to one of the US's (previously) best-kept secrets.
As a rule, you might expect to be overwhelmed after being whacked unceremoniously in the gut by so much previously unheard material by a previously unknown band. However, such is the inspirational quality of most of the tunes comprising The Assassination's 'Sparkle In The Finish' and 'Junkie Faithful' albums that you're simply elated to be able to wallow and thrash around in what amounts to little short of a masterclass where beautifully-observed, emotionally-bloodletting songs allied to thrilling, sharply-attired tunes is concerned.
The Assassination have a head start courtesy of the fact their frontman is one of the best lyricists this hack has heard in recent times. Capable of both devastating confessionals ('I Will Let You Down' must surely be THE self-destructive apologist's anthem) and finely-crafted vignettes that tap into the (low) lives of everyone from cross-dressers ('Whatever Happened To The Girl In Me?') through to members of mythical garage-rock bands ('St. Joe's Band') and bank robbers (the phenomenal 'Ballad Of The Choir Boy Bank Robber'), Reilly delivers his songs in a whiskey-soaked drawl somewhere between Steve Wynn and a young Dylan while The Assassination are clearly a quartet who - like their leader - play with the intensity and intuition of guys who've not only been round the block, but been mugged by life's more visceral side a few times too. 'On the money', I think, nails it in layman's terms.
Broadly, the effervescent 'Sparkle In The Finish' rocks the harder of the two sets. Opener 'I Don't Want What You Got (Goin' On)' sets the scene to near perfection, marrying funky beats, a hooky slide guitar figure (a la Beck's 'Loser') and a hectically brilliant 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'-esque wordspew from Reilly. It's breathless, manic and comes to the point with a no-nonsense chorus and - as lines like "Jerry Lee Lewis with his balls on fire in the back of a Rocket 88/ with a United States plate and an underage date" prove - isn't afraid to leaven the bread with both wry humour and sly cruelty.
Elsewhere, devil-may-care anthems like 'Garbage Day' and 'Our Lady Of Arturo' rattle around with a bottle of bourbon in one pocket and a switchblade in the other, while 'It's Alright To Die' comes on like a steroided-up Velvets pulling off a heist with Steve Wynn's Miracle 3. Perhaps pick of the bunch, though, is 'Ballad Of The Choir Boy Bank Robber' which opens with a Bad Seeds-style blast but then settles for edgy sophistication and develops into a fully-fledged tour de force by the time it heads for the state line with a string of misdemeanours flagging in its' wake.
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There's the occasional perplexing moment now and again ('Waitin' For Daddy' sounds like it was recorded for a few dimes in a condemned hotel room and not necessarily in a good way) but 'Junkie Faithful' has more than enough heavyweight action to seal the deal. Although this album is still seduced by the allure of a pretty face and gives in to loin-stirring rock'n'roll in places (not least the Who-style explosions of 'Farm Girl') it's the ballads and songs at least tempered by reflection that really hit home here. During the personal crisis of '22 Hours of Darkness', the excess and beauty that continually slug it out in Reilly's lyrics join forces devastatingly, although it's a walk in the park compared with the fatalistic carousing he embarks on during 'I Will Let You Down' or the anything-but-glamourous 'Heroin', which - despite the all-too-familiar 'drugs kill, kids' storyboard - is unremittingly stark and affecting.
Indeed, regardless of the darkness that precedes it, the other thing that makes it all such an attractive proposition is that 'Junkie Faithful' winds down with perhaps Reilly's most optimistic song to date. 'Everything Is Gonna Be Alright"s title might give the game away, but it's only when you've experienced its' gorgeous sunset of a tune a few times that you realise it's just about the perfect way to draw a line under this quality-stuffed double set.
'Sparkle In The Finish' and 'Junkie Faithful', then, work in either glorious isolation or as the killer double act they are when collected under the one roof. Instead of waiting for rock's latest predictable motorcade to come into the plaza and chasing after the much-touted patsy waiting in the book depository, I'd suggest you look out for The Ike Reilly Assassination lurking on the grassy knoll. They'll be the sharp-suited guys firing the shots that really count.
(www.myspace.com/ikereilly)
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