Album review: CHIP Z’NUFF – Perfectly Imperfect

Frontiers [Release date: 18.03.22]

New solo album from Grammy nominated musician, Chip Z’Nuff.

As much of today’s pop and rock degenerate into pro-tooled, prefabricated, flatpack blandness, Z’Nuff makes the case for home made, rough around the edges rock.

He’s still the master of songs that come with pulsating guitars, descending bass lines and darkly dayglo tunes.

And he can still nail down a memorable hook with the best. He just hasn’t written enough of them here.

As producer of his own recordings, he captures all the raw energy and underlying, edgy vibe that fuels his music, wrapping it up in a prickly sheen of studio polish.

He also has the nous to tap into the street smart pop sensibilities of Mott The Hoople in their prime, with a stonking cover of ‘Honaloochie Boogie’… “I was a city child with a dead end smile”.

The sublime ‘Welcome To The Party’, a powerpop song with a fabulously catchy tune, slender but melodious, helped along by Joel Hoekstra’s hooky little guitar phrases, and the Beatlish ‘Ordinary Man’, a sinewy, sturdily melodic poprock song, are where we want Z’Nuff to be.

Problem is, very few of the remaining songs are as strong, and a few focus on the self-destruct years, when his band’s drug taking spiralled out of control.

That said, the upbeat ‘Roll On’ (with a nod to Cheap Trick) and a ‘Ordinary Man’ raise the powerpop temperature considerably, but are inclined to expose Z’Nuff’s fragile vocals.

Elsewhere, there are just too many dark shadows masking the mood and the music. ***

Review by Brian McGowan

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CRY FOR MERCY Saving Grace (indie)
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