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Autographed by the Artist
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Ridgway's third and final solo CD from the 80's before marching into the 90's and beyond. Here are plenty of the Ridgway elements which supplied the vitality to previous releases present - but even more strange and avant garde tones are starting to be introduced. Mini, ambient compositions punctuate the main tracks and an increasingly experimental tone is adopted as the album marches on with grit and gusto. Boasts one of Ridgway's most haunting and moving songs, "Right Through You," while "Harry Truman", "Roadblock", and the other-worldly "Beyond Tomorrow" make for a richly varied pallette that transports the listener from rural towns to the farthest reaches of the galaxy; from historical tragedies to lives in the balance; the album embodies them all. The delusionary underdog epic "I Wanna Be A Boss" is the albums sole single and ends up on morning drive time radio shows throughout the U.S. and in the U.K. After this came out - Ridgway and his band Chapter Eleven were off on tour again throughout the US and Europe."
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Please note: This is Special Stock here only to CDbaby! These CDs are autographed inside by Stan Ridgway himself - and include a special color collector's card autographed as well. These Cds are "premium new used stock". no pesky shrink wrap and all of them in excellent condition with original 10 page lyric booklet.
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Stan's Genius Shines Through - a pop gem with superb production
July 10, 2005- Eric J. Anderson
via Amazon.com
"When Stan went solo, the quality jumped. Each album saw a step forward in sophistication, with Partyball at the peak. It is almost a fully realized effort, with excellent production, track sequencing, clever little interludes, tremendous energy in performance, and breadth of subject matter -- always with the point of view a little askew, but suiting perfectly Stan's oddball vocal style.
Partyball begins with Jack Talked (like a man on fire), a herky jerky tale of insanity, which Stan punctuates by half shouting, half singing, and twisting his mouth around the strange lyrics ("he took personality tests, and stapled them to his lower lip"), sounding as if he is on the verge of an appointment with a straightjacket himself.
I Wanna Be A Boss remains Stan's magnum opus. This tale of dreaming castles in the sky builds to a near-symphonic climax, never faltering, perfectly expressing the escapism of the working class trapped in 9-to-5 drudgery.
The hits keep on coming, with Roadblock, a classic Ridgway "fugitive song," a verbal portrait of small town America. A community lies in wait to ambush a man with "crazy eyeballs jumpin' left and right in time to an 8-track playing Foghat" as he drives unsuspectingly into the sherriff's trap. But at the end, everyone gets an unpleasant surprise.
Stan gets a bit more abstract on the creepy Snaketrain and the tender (I See) Right Through You. These are also beautiful songs in their own way, the latter a genuine heartbreak that I find strangely moving.
With Gumbo Man we are back into the subject of shady underworld characters. The cheesy 60's organ solo beats all, and Gumbo Man is so infectious they actually played it on the radio in our town.
Harry Truman is more muscially contemplative. If its meaning is obscure, it is no less seductive. John Lennon's Come Together never made any sense, either. The slithery guitar playing oozes cool -- this song slides down like an oyster.
Overlords is a like a little science fiction movie. The characters are counterparts to the poor grunts in I Wanna Be A Boss, only this time their bosses are intergalactic slave-drivers. I suppose this song is a little mundane, but it's still fun.
If Partyball flirts with insanity at the start, at the end, it dives right into the deep end of the pool. One can make little sense of Uba's House of Fashions, but I cannot resist Stan's psyched and psycho delivery, as he sings about the strange goings-on in this high-class dress store, long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. The music marries beautifully with Stan's vocal histrionics, and then the song starts running BACKWARDS, complete with guitar solo. To my mind, this is another Ridgway classic.
I consider Uba to be a fitting end to Partyball. Beyond Tomorrow is more like a bonus track. The band sets up a groove and Stan raps for six minutes, lyrics that sound like a cross between Futurama and notes scribbled on an LSD trip. Surely this is the weakest cut.
Partyball is produced by Stan Ridgway. This is his vision, and he deserves the glory. It sounds as if he had a bigger budget on this album, and used it wisely, to craft the arrangements and songs with changes in mood and instrumentation and vocal delivery to keep things interesting. At the risk of repeating myself, I Wanna Be A Boss is a masterpiece. Stan is magically on target with Partyball -- he could do no wrong. The songs are melodic -- as melodic as Ridgway gets, anyway. He knew exactly how to voice the band and his own vocals so that everything "gelled." I haven't heard all of his subsequent albums, but lately his production style has been a little too spare for my taste. (There is some beautiful work on the Anatomy CD, though.) If you want prime Ridgway, this is the collection you should buy." - Eric J. Anderson - Amazon.com
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