RICK SPRINGFIELD – Songs For The End Of The World

Shane | 11 February 2013 | Reply

Label: Frontiers
Released: October 2012
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
9/10

“So nice to meet you, so good to see your friendly face” sings Rock Springfield on Wide Awake, opening track on what just might be his best album yet. 32 years on from Jessie’s Girl, his 17th record is relentlessly hard rockin’ and doesn’t mess about.

Sprinfield uses the occasion to bring out the gonzo rocker in himself in much the same way as he played a gonzo, alternate/exaggerated version of himself in the Third Season of Californication. In that show he revelled in portrayed the alt-Springfield as a cocaine-desperado, defiling other men’s wives and hookers with as much gusto as eating a dozen lobster.

On Songs For The End Of The World he is the ultimate stadium rockstar, tearing out riffs as big as melodies, rip snorting solos, and above all – great song after great song.

Those only familiar with the an from Jessie’s Girl and his soapie roles may find the sheer leather-trousered rocking of Springfield 2012 a little overbearing, but with amps to eleven there is no wonder why Europe’s Frontiers Records got so whole heartedly behind this release.

The in-yer-face material stands out upon initial listens – Love Screws Me Up and I Hate Myself could both have been sung by the Californication alt-Springfield, such is there gritty and desperate subject matter, and a Rolling Stones tip o’ the cap.

It’s not all gonzo-rock though; You & Me is a touching ballad, and Gabriel is a hard rocker full of intriguing rhythms and melodies, with a U2 edge to it.

Depravity and One Way Street round out the 12 tracks in top form, proving that while he’s in touch with alt-Springfield’s gonzo antics, Rick Springfield is a far more adventurous and rounded artist than any one dimensional cartoonish portrayal can capture.

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