Viagra Falls

Right from note # 1 a beautiful clarity of production to make you wonder whether you will ever be able to embrace lo-fi again. It’s as if suddenly the absolute pleasure of listening reveals itself as a sixth sense. Someone’s got stuff.
One gasp after awarding first prize to the fantastic piano player, you immediately concede that, no, it’s the guitar who’s the star of the show after all. Then a late entry or two from the other finalists means you’ll just have to cover it with the all-round excellent musicianship option.
The voice is a bit uncomfortable as it takes the verse, tangled as it is into all this busy-busy-ness. And it takes such liberties with timing in its wanderings that you can’t quite let it be your leader. So it’s lucky we start with a chorus.
It’s a groove jazz duel with a twinned guitars whose soloettes are fascinating and a great joy to listen to. That’s how they make guitars talk, that is.
If you’ve a mind to investigate blues scales, here’s a good place to start exploring. It’s loose in its tightness, with occasional bulges.
I’m not acquainted quickly with the words, but soon a common blues-me-up theme begins to emerge; the one about hard work and low pay and general dissatisfaction about one’s lot. But – surely something more – did he really say “I can’t get it up”? How startlingly frank and straightforward. Well, straightdownward really.
Still, enduring the misery of erectile dysfunction has certainly given this guy has a really great, really powerful voice as compensation; gritty as sand with uncommon natural spirit and, come to that, spit that sizzles as it hits the pavement. A little frustration comin’ through here and there, heh.
It’s just after 2:42 that the song really hits top gear, finds its thread and focus. Punctuated with stabbing guitar and lined with bass fusion, it’s surely impossible not to love what goes on.
So admirably setting its sights on technical perfection, it’s totally organic in the guts, where it counts.