Artist: Steve Wynn
Album: Kerosene Man and Dazzling Display
Label: Omnivore Recordings
Release Date: 4.27.18
The risk was worth it to Steve Wynn. Rolling the dice, Wynn left Paisley Underground standard-bearers the Dream Syndicate in 1989 for a solo career, as the noisiest of all the neo-psychedelic night crawlers took an extended break. As Wynn writes in the liner notes for the newly-reissued Kerosene Man, “I wasn’t running away from anything. I was just running towards something new.”
The grass isn’t always greener in such instances, but Wynn ultimately triumphed, with help from friends in R.E.M., Concrete Blonde, X, the Bangles, Los Lobos and—of all people—Flo & Eddie. Refreshingly candid, Wynn’s writings accompanying new editions of 1990’s Kerosene Man and 1992’s Dazzling Display – both of which he curated – reveal the doubts, sheer creativity and epiphanies of an artist who remembers all too well what it’s like to crawl out on a limb.
Not that Wynn ever strayed too far from the strong, dark rock ’n’ roll intoxicants his old band, now reunited, poured out with feverish passion. While intending to broaden his palette, Wynn made clean, exquisite jangle-pop—as Dream Syndicate did with aplomb—on his own, as the well-contoured “Tears Won’t Help” and the mandolin-coiled “Carolyn” from Kerosene Man and an absolutely brilliant “Tuesday” and its sterling equal “Close Your Eyes” from the more cinematic Dazzling Display, sparkle and swoon. Mean, with thick, ominous grooves and crazed saxophone squalls, Kerosene Man’s muscular and mesmerizing “Younger” seethes and that album’s “Something to Remember Me By” relies on solid hooks and toughness, while the rousing title track from Dazzling Display and the swaggering, brawling “405” from Wynn’s second solo record sound like Dream Syndicate on steroids.
If Kerosene Man doesn’t map out great swathes of new territory for Wynn to explore, it at least takes interesting detours. Augmented by six live recordings from the rare, promo-only vinyl Straight to the Swapmeet: Legendary Authorized Bootleg, including an even edgier, more rugged “Younger” and the raucous free-for-all “Graveyard Train,” Kerosene Man finds Wynn staring at the stars in a mellow, country-tinged “The Blue Drifter” and lounging comfortably in the shadowy noir and smoke of “Under the Weather.” That chiseled voice of Wynn’s captivates.
In Dazzling Display, Wynn goes for broke with the sweeping epic “Bonnie and Clyde,” the liquid and alluring “Halo” and the bright, upbeat “Dandy in Disguise.” Everything seems bigger and bolder, more ambitious. The string arrangements are sumptuous. The songwriting is diverse and increasingly sophisticated. Even the quieter “As it Should Be,” spread out with its simmering organ, aspires to the reach the heights of Jimmy Webb’s best work. Bulging with bonus rarities that feature a slow, drugged-out version of Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing” and driving, bluesy takes on Paul Simon’s “Boy in the Bubble” and Bob Dylan’s “Watching the River Flow,” Dazzling Display has a new day in the sun. It is deserving of a wider audience this time around, as is Kerosene Man. Hopefully, these new packages will open the eyes of those who’ve been ignoring the music for far too long.
—Peter Lindblad
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