Alex
Chilton –
Like
Flies on Sherbert
CD
Album, Reissue, 1996, France
Last
Call Records
Truly
one of the great albums in my collection of greats. Alex Chilton's
demented, wild, and perhaps insane album Like
Flies on Sherbert is
a like following a lighted fuse as it approaches the TNT. Instead of
cartoon violence, we're getting psyche warfare where one doesn't know
how this is going to end up. Half originals, and half covers, this
album is a dictionary of ill will but not going silently into the
night. If Sgt. Pepper is the grand point of pop, then Like
Flies … is
the very peak of rockabilly. To me it always represents the end of
something, maybe even music?
Without
a doubt, Chilton changed gears after this album. But what he left on
the operating table is emotion, that I think only an artist like Sam
Fuller can appreciate. “Boogie Shoes” is a perfect opening to
this chaos. Throw-a-way, loose version of KC and The Sunshine Band's
southern soul is the entrance that leads to the deadly “My Rival.”
The distorted guitars fighting towards a blissfulness of revenge.
“Hey! Little Child” is just brutal, with darkness lurking in its
soul, and Alex sometimes sounds like a David Lynch villain.
Nevertheless this is the end results of Big Stars' great “Third”
album, it goes nowhere, and this is the sound of that state of mind.
Masterpiece.
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