Average White Band – AWB

Previously on this blog, I reviewed the Average White Band album Cut the Cake. I thoroughly enjoyed that record. This record, AWB, was released only a year prior to Cut the Cake, but it simply doesn’t compare.

Too often on this record, the band sounds over-produced. It’s too slick. It reminded me of Chicago. For a funk band, to be mistaken for easy listening/lite rock/elevator music is a serious problem. The main problem seems to be the vocals. Singer Alan Gorrie is trying to do too much with his voice, the lead vocal is too prominent in the mix, and the lyrics are pretty inane. Here’s a sample from “Person to Person”, a song about how badly Gorrie misses his lady when he’s on the road and how their long-distance phone calls don’t do the trick: “Wish you could be with me / There would be no problem / Our communication’s bad / And I want to see you again.” WHAT? It sounds like a whine set to music. It doesn’t even rhyme! Look, for white Scotsmen, these guys are funky. But they’re not funky enough to pull a James Brown and write lyrics that don’t rhyme.

But “Pick Up the Pieces”, the only instrumental on the album, succeeds for two reasons. First and most obviously, there are no vocals. This is a classic case of addition by subtraction. Second, this might be the tightest, funkiest composition by anyone, ever. (It’s certainly in the top 10.) The mix is terrific, and the band is in lockstep. Listening to the song, I wondered how many takes it must have taken to get it so perfect. The arrangement is complex, but there isn’t a note that isn’t right in time, with feel. A quick listen to the live version of the song, included as the final track of the album, shows just how sloppy the song can get. The studio version must have taken weeks.

I was already familiar with “Pieces” from its use in the guy movie Swingers, where director Doug Liman used it for an L.A. driving sequence. Coincidentally, that’s exactly how I listened to it: driving home from work on Sepulveda Blvd. While other aspects of that movie (the Sinatra worship, for one) haven’t aged as well, something tells me that this song will never feel dated.

The bottom line, however, is that you can find that one great song elsewhere. Don’t buy this album.