dUg
Pinnick – Naked
RockArmy
Records/MVD
All
Access Review: B+
 |
| dUg Pinnick - Naked 2013 |
Going
into deep self-analysis, dUg Pinnick, the heart and soul of King’s X, takes
stock of his life on Naked, his
latest solo album. A record with such a title would imply that its author is
willing to leave himself vulnerable, exposed, and his defenses are down on Naked. Laying his soul bare, Pinnick has
penned some of the most relatable and intensely therapeutic lyrics of his
career, and they are couched in angry, downcast music that seems born of dark days,
indeed.
Slaying
those inner demons, an edgy Pinnick – who wrote everything on Naked, played everything on Naked, recorded it himself and produced
it all by his lonesome at his own dUgtone Studio – unleashes gnarly heavy-metal
storms like “That Great Big Thing,” the bruised, yet mellifluous, “I Hope I
Don’t Lose My Mind,” and the ponderous, grunge-like stomp of “What You Gonna Do”
that release powerful, bottled-up emotions. These are somewhat depressing,
suffocating sonic environments – dreary motel rooms, where bottles of pills and
booze are strewn about, but there’s a Bible on the nightstand and hope for a
better life cutting through the gloom of the drug-sick psychedelia of “The
Point,” one of the strangest tracks on Naked.
And
there are some odd passages on Naked,
including the shambolic breakdown of “I’m Not Going to Freak Out” and the stuttering “Take Me Away From You,” with its ill-conceived proggy
keyboards providing a distracting kaleidoscopic background. More soulful, with a thick guitar
roar, “Courage” growls at and then mauls to death whatever fears it confronts, while
“Ain’t That the Truth” rolls out satisfying, hard funk grooves and the urgent “Heart
Attack” tears the newspaper off the windows, letting some radiant guitars,
optimism and the will to carry on into what has been a dank, dirty basement of a record up to this point.
Possibly
the most affecting track on Naked is
“If You Fuk Up,” a heartfelt, slow-building ode to self-reliance in the face of
crushing doubt and despair that artfully weaves together different voice threads that carry Pinnick’s pleas for
salvation and his semi-formed survival plan. Less reliant on whimsical Beatlesesque harmonies and the melodic ingenuity of King’s X’s greatest achievements, although not so different from their early work, Naked is spiritual in its own way, but it has a tough skin and a serious aspect.
It’s a crumbling old
church in a bad neighborhood with an idealistic priest who tries valiantly to
shepherd his flock, despite the temptations and desperate hardships its congregation
faces every day. Pinnick will clothe himself and fight on, shouldering his burdens
and seeking redemption wherever he can find it. Maybe Naked will convince others to do the same. www.seeofsound.com
- – Peter
Lindblad
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