Perhaps one of the most honest and sincere, and personal, albums of this year.
Aftermath of the lowdown --- Richie Sambora --- 2012 (Dangerbird)
I don't hate many people, but I do intensely dislike my sister-in-law, and that dislike does verge on a sort of hatred every so often. She's one of these domineering personalities who, not only have to control everything and everyone, but also have always to be right. She's the type who will, and has, upend a gameboard in a petulant fit if she's not winning, who will turn on the waterworks to get any attention that's going which she feels is going to others, and is just a thoroughly nasty person. She also, incidentally, is convinced that beef and pork come from the same animal, and you can't tell her she's wrong.
Why do I tell you this, and why should you care? Well, you shouldn't, but I say it all because despite how much I dislike her, I reluctantly have to thank her for one thing, and that is for getting me into the music of Richie Sambora. I didn't even know he did any solo work at the time, when she gave me a cassette of "Stranger in this town", his debut, and I must say I really liked it, though his followup, "Undiscovered soul", which I reviewed here some time back, I found to be a much better album. This of course leads us to his latest, released earlier this year, and which comes close to being his best yet.
A much more mature album than even its two predecessors, the overall impression I get from "Aftermath of the lowdown" is of a man standing back and taking stock, looking at his life; where he has gone wrong, where he has made the right decisions and why, and the ultimate realisation that in the end it's only yourself that can save you, if you want to be saved. Track titles like "You can only get so high", "Seven years gone" and "Weathering the storm" tell their own story, but I get ahead of myself. This is, as I mentioned, the third solo album from the Bon Jovi guitarist and songwriter, and his first in fourteen years. That's twice the gap between his debut and his second, and that gap was so large at the time that I believed Richie would only have the one solo album. Glad I was wrong.
Most of this album is written by him with the help of Luke Ebbin, who masterminded Bon Jovi's smash comeback with "It's my life" and the following album "Crush". This is similar to what Richie did with "Undiscovered soul", when he penned many of the songs on that album with the mysterious Richie Supa, previous to that his bandmate/leader Jon Bon Jovi helped out on one track on his debut, as well as keyboardist David Bryan, who also had some input into the debut. But this appears to be more of a collaborative effort, which is maybe why it sounds more polished and together than his previous outings. It retains however Sambora's personal stamp on it, and his frank detailing of a life often lived on the edges bleeds through many of the tracks, though there's plenty of room for good old rockin' fun too.
And rock we do, as "Burn that candle down" gets us started, that hard-hittin' guitar we know so well smashing forward, with a hard funk/rock track, stomping drumwork from Aaron Sterling sounding like he's hittin' the skins inside a tunnel. There's the expected fret workout from Richie, and his voice is a little mechanised here, which to be fair doesn't work that well, but it's a good hard opener and paves the way for much better tracks. Great organ from Matt Rollings and squealing guitars from Richie, taking us already into one of the standouts. When I first heard "Every road leads home to you" I had to double-check, because it sounds so poppy and commercial I for a moment thought that maybe I had put on the wrong album! Definitely the most radio-friendly song he's ever written, it rides along on the bubbling keys of Roger Manning, with some fine piano from Rollings alongside and a hook that surely must make this a hit? No? Well, we live in hope. It has been released as the first single from the album, so you never know. Great song though, and here you can hear Richie sing as he's supposed to, devoid of any technical trickery.
It runs at a nice pace too, not a blisterer by any means but nowhere close to a ballad, and with a great sense of optimism. Much of this album is, as I mentioned earlier, reflective as Richie seems to take stock, and looking back at the decisions in his life and where he goes from here. Many are dark realisations that things can't go on like this anymore, some are perhaps thanks for what he still has, and this certainly seems to fit into the latter category. Heavier but still quite commercial in its way is the blues-influenced "Takin' a chance on the wind", which starts on what sounds like a dobro (but I don't think is: maybe just a capo on the guitar?) then goes into a nice acoustic passage before the electric blasts in and the drums come thundering behind. Sense of boogie too in this song, and more optimism in evidence here. Great bassline from Curt Schneider and more powerful organ from Matt Rollings, with definitely a harder edge than the previous song.
Another standout (and there are many) comes in the form of the rocketing "Nowadays", a searing indictment of our modern world, with hard stop/start guitar and Richie's vocals slightly mechanised again. Some great lines in this:
"Walking Wall Street dead",
"Tryin' to tell your friends/ From your enemies" and not much in the way of keyboards. It's pretty much a guitar-centric songs with some great work from Richie; could nearly be another single, though it might be too heavy for radio. Things slow down then for "Weathering the storm", the first ballad, where Richie shows off how powerful his voice can be without having to shout or scream, that even when he takes it down several notches he's still got the presence to grab your attention. Almost a gospel feel to this song, one of the redemption songs I'd say. Back to rockin' then with the fun "Sugar daddy", which is a little throwaway but lightens the somewhat sombre mood of the album. With almost the rhythm and melody of the Doors' "Roadhouse blues" or even Bowie's "Jean genie" it's a real boogie rocker and should go down well on stage. Great backing vocals and shot through with another fine thread of blue, then "I'll always walk beside you" is another lovely ballad which has been released as a charity single, all proceeds going to the Red Cross.
It's low-key, opening on soft acoustic guitar and with a gentle vocal from Richie, swirling keys floating in the background, then Richie's voice gets progressively stronger and more insistent, as does his guitar, until acoustic is joined by electric and choral vocals drift into the mix, and then halfway through the song the percussion comes up more powerfully and the song takes off on electric guitar and organ, picking up tempo and intensity as it goes. Nice subdued little solo from Richie, and we move into another acoustic ballad, the brilliant "Seven years gone". Having spent time in rehab for alcohol abuse from 2008, I'd wonder if this is a reference to that time lost? Okay, he didn't
spend seven years in there --- it was on and off --- but even so, perhaps he feels that's too many years wasted out of his life. The lyric would seem to support this:
"Can't find a road to healin'/ When you're blinded by your pride" and
"You wake up/ Move on/ Seven years gone". Richie's not above robbing a line from Don Henley's "The end of the innocence" here either, but the song gets harder and more uptempo, if not upbeat, as it goes along, so it's not really what you'd call a ballad. Great song though, and another standout.
I could probably do without the mad guitar solo at the end, as I personally feel it changes the whole feel of the song, which was sad, reflective, emotive and now just goes out on a burst of riffs and ends abruptly, but it is what it is, and it doesn't quite ruin the song, though I'd prefer it had ended differently. Another hard rocker is up next, in the shape of "Learnin' how to fly with a broken wing", recalling the best from "Undiscovered soul", and also betraying his Bon Jovi heritage. Probably some of his best solos on here too, a real braincrusher. That leads us into what, if I had to pick just one standout, I would select as the best track on this album. "You can only get so high" is about as reflective as you can get, with a truly gorgeous, melancholic piano run from Rollings and Richie's guitar crying like a violin, and some of his best lines ever:
"First light came without a warning/ Sunrise scared the daylights out of me" and
"I'll take one more drink/ And two packs of lies." Beautiful burst of synthwork from Luke Ebbin adds real heart to the song, and if there's one song that depicts Richie realising that he can't go on living like this, well this is it. A true tale of remorse and realisation, and determination to change. Just stunning.
The closer is, interestingly, another ballad, another acoustic beginning with what really does sound like violin joining him, and whereas I think I would have preferred the previous track to have closed the album, "World" is a good finale too. Some really nice light piano from Rollings, and a fine clear vocal from Richie. There's a certain sense of sixties hippy/psychedelia about the song, sort of Beatles meets the Byrds. It's also quite short for a closing track, less than two and a half minutes. There are, however, two extra tracks which although I don't usually feature them, I will, as this is the first time I've heard this album. Well, not really: I've listened to it on and off for about a week now, probably ten or more times. What I mean is that I usually don't include bonus tracks because they weren't on the original version of the album I listened to or owned, but in this case I haven't heard this album without the extras so they're getting mentioned.
As it goes, one is a fast happy rocker, the ultimate "had enough of this" song, with "Backseat driver" featuring some great organ and a really upbeat vibe, while the other, "Forgiveness Street", is perhaps one of Richie's most emotional and accomplished songs to date, really tugs at the heartstrings. Both these were included on the Japanese release --- which is obviously the one I bought --- but the latter was for some reason removed from later pressings, which staggers me, because it's easily as good as some of the very best work on the album proper. But there it is: it's no longer available, unless it gets released on the back of one of the singles. Carried on the doleful organ of Matt Rollings, it features somewhat understated guitar from Richie, and reminds me in ways of "Harlem rain" from the previous album. As a coda to his soulsearching on this album it's the perfect ender, which is why I'm even more surprised it wasn't on the main album, much less cut from the extras.
TRACKLISTING
1. Burn that candle down
2. Every road leads home to you
3. Takin' a chance on the wind
4. Nowadays
5. Weathering the storm
6. Sugar daddy
7. I'll always walk beside you
8. Seven years gone
9. Leaning how to fly with a broken wing
10. You can only get so high
11. World
12. Backseat driver
(additional track on Japanese release)
13. Forgiveness Street
(additional track originally on Japanese release but now deleted from same)
It's been fifteen years since we've had a solo album from Richie Sambora, but we shouldn't be that surprised. He has, after all, his day job helping Jon run Bon Jovi, and apart from that he's also been involved with other artistes, as well as taken part in and in some cases organising various charity events. If there's one word I had to pick to describe this album it would be honest. We're listening to the tales of a man who knows he went to excess in his life, and has mercifully managed to come back from it. He knows where he went wrong, acknowledges his past failings and sins, and is now looking for redemption and forgiveness in the church of rock and roll.
Who'd deny him that?