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 Released February 18, 1997
Cry is the last hurrah of the original Rock*A*Teens lineup and the last record they released for Indigo Girl Amy Ray's Daemon label. It's the first of these two lasts, though, that's germane to the contents of Cry. After Cry, the subtle vocal interplay between songwriter/guitarist/singer Chris Lopez and songwriter/guitarist/singer Kelly Hogan would be conspicuously absent (thankfully, Hogan went on to forge a quietly remarkably indie solo career). Nevertheless, she brought a harmonic, grounding vocal perspective to Lopez's tortured 4 a.m.-vibe rockabilly exorcisms. Cry, in and of itself, is a remarkably bleak trip through soul-searching roots rock. Lopez's voice is the Rock*A*Teens' calling card, flailing somewhere between Nick Cave's darkest yowlings circa the Birthday Party and a drunken, lost man unaware that he's singing at all, but making a racket nonetheless. At times, Lopez calls up a rockabilly drawl, laying out the straight dope like a road-tested honky-tonker. But more often, he's crooning full-lunged and desperate. The musical proceedings follow suit, but are always colored by enough reverb to make the Sun Records catalog sound positively flat. From the marching caterwaul of the opener "Never Really Ever Had It" straight on until dawn in "The Rockabilly Ghetto," Lopez and company marry the goth with the Southern gothic as though both were co-written by Flannery O'Connor and Carl Perkins. ~ Chris Handyside, All Music Guide
TRACKS 1. Never Really Had It
2. Black Ice
3. Losers Weepers
4. Cherry Red Compilation
5. I Am Forgetting
6. Nightmare
7. Let Them Talk
8. Stand Tall
9. Cry Cry Baby
10. The Rockabilly Ghetto
11. Halfway Home
12. Your Heart or Your Life
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© 2006 All Music Guide, LLC