Band: X
Album: Wild Gift
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: X's album of guilt -- as described by Robert Christgau -- is deeper and more interesting than their other records. Again produced by Ray Manzarek, the album's sheen belies its punkiness, though both aspects work together to make a pretty good record.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: I'm still not totally in the X camp. It's still punk, as much as the lyrics are much better than so many punk rock bands.
Best song: "White Girl" is a cool racial song -- not a phrase uttered a lot.
Worst song: "I'm Coming Over" isn't great, but, thankfully, it's short.
Is it awesome?: It's close. My mind is changing on this band.
Because of my lack of effort in reviewing "Los Angeles," a couple of excellent commenters expressed a disappointment in my non-love for the record. Because I trust said commenters' taste, I took a little more interest in "Wild Gift" and went in with a little more optimist. And, quite frankly, they were right. "Wild Gift" is great.
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Music critic Robert Christgau is one of the biggest supporters of "Wild Gift" in the world, and he gave the album one of the very rare A+. The opening line of his review -- "Hippies couldn't understand jealousy because they believed in universal love; punks can't understand it because they believe sex is a doomed reflex of existentially discrete monads." -- puts the record in a perspective I didn't really think about.
"Adult Books" has the feel of a dance while the frantic lyrics stream out, the love-goes-wrong "When Our Love Passed Out on the Couch" is interesting and cool and "We're Desperate" is wonderful. The aggressive guitars and upbeat drums work well with Exene's sultry-if-you-squint vocals.
Maybe it's the timing, but I do like "Wild Gift" more than I like "Los Angeles." It's a great punk rock record.
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