World Party 6: Arkeology

Five albums in fifteen years isn’t such a big deal these days, but Karl Wallinger loved, loved, loved to record, so he amassed a whole pile of things likely never to be heard outside his own speakers. But once the Internet made it easier for people to distribute their work directly, he did just that, but with a twist. Arkeology presented five hours’ worth of mostly unreleased World Party material on five discs, packaged in a spiral-bound daily planner.

While much of his studio work was one-man-band, he did rely on a few hired guns, especially for live work. In fact, the songs most people would have heard appear that way, sometimes twice. (Anyone seeking a more concise compilation with the actual hits can opt for 2007’s Best In Show, also released on his own label.) We also notice that for a guy trained on piano, he plays a decent guitar for a southpaw holding it upside and backwards.

The music isn’t organized thematically or chronologically, and we’re not going to discuss every track here, but there are some amazing gems hidden throughout. Right off the bat “Waiting Such A Long Long Time”, “Nothing Lasts Forever”, and “Everybody’s Falling In Love” are catchy tracks that would have been welcome on any album. Add other nice surprises like “No More Crying”, “Basically”, the mildly Kinky “All The Love That’s Wasted” (which sounds better here than on Dumbing Up), “Lost In Infinity”, “Another World”, and “Mystery Girl” (heard in two versions here) and there’s a solid single album right there. One of the better tracks is “Time On My Hands”, a Bang! B-side written by occasional guitarist (and professional McCartney impersonator) Dave Catlin-Birch. “Kuwait City” is also revived from its hiding place on Bang!.

Influences abound, from the note-for-note remakes of three White Album tracks, Little Richard’s “Lucille”, and Dylan’s “Sweetheart Like You”. Sly and the Family Stone’s “Stand!” is a good live cover, but there’s no need for anyone else to play “Like A Rolling Stone”. Just to prove his versatility and capacity for silliness, you can tap your toes along with the British music hall of “The Good Old Human Race”, “You’re Beautiful But Get Out Of My Life”, and snippets like, well, “Silly Song”.

They can’t all be perfect, as demonstrated by the overlong “Everybody Dance Now” leading into a too-short Brian Wilson inference called “Closer Still”. “This Is Your World Speaking” tries to be an anthem of universal togetherness, but at nine minutes it’s what happens when one works alone. “Break Me Again” could easily be whittled down to a third of the length, while unfinished ideas like “New Light” are just begging to be enhanced. The instrumental “Outro” has us wishing we could hear the rest of the tune. There’s a lot in here to explore, and its bulk is what holds Arkeology back.

World Party Arkeology (2012)—3

World Party 5: Dumbing Up

Even if it takes him years to finish an album for a tiny public that cares about it more than any distribution channel, Karl Wallinger has the skill to produce himself, layering instruments and sounds, either by himself or with dedicated players, to concoct the product in his head. (And, apparently, design his own cover art with stock programs.) As solid as Dumbing Up is, he could still use an editor.

Many of the tracks are long for what used to be airplay standards, and when they tend to be on the slow side, it’s easy to lose interest. “High Love”, obviously a ballad close to his heart for the time he devotes to it, would be better served by highlighting the sublime harmonies that don’t show up to until the end. Luckily, it’s followed by “Best Place I’ve Ever Been” is the upbeat quasi-single the album sorely needs. “Santa Barbara” is a lovely seaside-inspired piano reverie that’s a departure for him, though the seagulls could be scaled back. “All The Love That's Wasted” has something of a music-hall feel, but is immediately superseded by the grand “Little Bit Of Perfection”. “Another 1000 Years” is obviously melodically suggested by “Baby You’re A Rich Man”, which brings us to our next point.

Where the album truly falls short of excellent are the obvious pastiches. “Here Comes The Future” has an anachronistic arrangement that belies the title, and his funk experiments are kinda embarrassing anyway. And having already recorded several songs based liberally on Dylan’s electric heyday, “Who Are You?” loses any value in its rant by not trying harder (though at least it doesn’t all sound like its funk coda). In contrast, he manages to better direct his social commentary on the closing “Always On My Mind”, a simple solo piece with just piano, vocals, and some effects, albeit for over eight minutes.

Not long after the album was released with nary a ripple of impact, Wallinger suffered a brain aneurysm, the effects of which incapacitated him for the better part of six years. Once sufficiently recovered, he rereleased Dumbing Up on his own label, shuffling the original sequence, dropping two songs and adding two new ones. “‘Til I Got You” and “I Thought You Were A Spy” are both effortless tunes that, amazingly, no one else had thought of yet. “All The Love That's Wasted” is no great loss, but it’s a shame he cut “Little Bit Of Perfection”. The album still ends with “Always On My Mind”; where else could it fit?

World Party Dumbing Up (2000)—3
2006 reissue: same as 2000, plus 2 extra tracks (and minus 2 tracks) plus DVD

World Party 4: Egyptology

One of the bigger movie soundtracks of 1994 was the one for Reality Bites, which mostly put Lisa Loeb on the map. But tucked away in the first half was a new song by World Party. Casual listeners might have overlooked it, because “When You Come Back To Me” is very much a sonic homage to David Bowie’s “Young Americans”. (A piano-driven cover of “All The Young Dudes” was on the Clueless soundtrack the following year.)

Karl Wallinger hadn’t overtly aped Bowie before, or at least not to this level, and the song was not included on the next World Party album. Still mostly a one-man-band affair, Egyptology was put together over a four-year period, during which Wallinger’s mother died and he was dropped from his label. The label that did pick him up was folded into another shortly after the album’s release, so it never really got a chance to succeed on its own.

The usual sounds are here: Jagger-style vocals, Dylanesque rhymes, Beatlesque arrangements, a little funk. A live drummer is used on most of the album, which is a big help; the ones he plays himself have improved, as have the machines used to make the rest. More than anything, however, the songs are strong, and not merely experiments in genre.

Normally, “It Is Time” would be another argument for the prosecution that a list is not a song, but it’s just so catchy. “Beautiful Dream” balances two hooks very well, and while “Call Me Up” sounds like it was mostly written while the tape rolled, the detour about “those bits in the middle” is very clever. “Vanity Fair” seems to evoke mid-‘60s chamber pop in a cautionary tale about who knows what, but the big production is pulled out for “She’s The One”. It may or may not have been intended for the movie that ended up with a Tom Petty soundtrack, but it sure comes off like a big anthem. Amazingly, Robbie Williams made it into a hit a few years later, which is likely how Andy Williams came to hear of it. A layered “Swingle Singers” vocal arrangement sets up “Curse Of The Mummy’s Tomb”, a torrent of angry rhymes over almost as angry soloing, and a requiem for the late Mrs. Wallinger. The anger gives over to sorrow in “Hercules”, faded up in progress, more soloing over major-sevenths and minor-sevenths on piano and string synth and appropriately sloppy drums.

The balance of the album doesn’t seem to be designed as deep, but still delivers. “Love Is Best” continues the melancholy mood, and “Rolling Off A Log” continues the faux-baroque stylings of “Vanity Fair” with a reprise of the earlier vocal interlude. “Strange Groove” was likely the title of the track before it got lyrics, and while slight, doesn’t get too dull. “The Whole Of The Night” takes an idea from the Bowie textbook, that of welcoming aliens to our planet, but we can’t place the musical influence. “Piece Of Mind” is another excuse for a jam, just as “This World” revives ‘80s synth horns and aspects of “Love Street” from Goodbye Jumbo, which is fine with us. The album has to end with “Always”, another groove but one that repeatedly insists “I gotta go”.

Egyptology is an hour well spent with solid, enjoyable tunes and a lot of hooks. Besides being one of Wallinger’s better albums, it was also one of the better albums in a year full of good ones. Grab it if you can find it.

World Party Egyptology (1997)—4

World Party 3: Bang!

With the third album under the World Party moniker, Karl Wallinger would have you believe they grew into a real live band, with a dedicated drummer and a multi-instrumentalist on board. However, much of Bang! sounds less like a band in a room than a guy layering canned instruments and effects within a mix.

A shuffling rhythm that sounds an awful lot like recent Waterboys albums drives “Kingdom Come”, but with more of a country influence and a stumbling transition when the chords finally change. While a pleasant single, “Is It Like Today?” is about as repetitive as the first track, and its best hook was already used in “Put The Message In The Box”. “What Is Love All About?” melds too much of a Prince influence with silly sound effects, while the operatic “And God Said…” interlude picks the wrong place to make an ecological statement. Some purple echoes return on “Give It All Away”, which is otherwise a decent jam with lots of guitar, and “Sooner Or Later” continues the funk with a groove crossed between Steely Dan and, yes, the Beatles.

Generic dance beats rule the balance of the album, which hides the potential of the songs. “Hollywood” actually has good hooks in both the verses and the chorus, but “Radio Days” merely weaves spoken snippets in between the beats and seemingly inconsequential lyrics. If not for his own voice, “Rescue Me” could be mistaken for any number of new jack swing tracks of the era. Just in time, “Sunshine” provides relief and variety with an acoustic strum crossing “Wild Horses” with “You’re A Big Girl Now” and a bridge that borrows liberally from “Getting In Tune” (the first overt Who steal in his catalog). “All I Gave” is another excellent track that sounds like “classic” World Party before a reprise of “Give It All Away”, and, on the CD, the obligatory twenty-minute gap of silence that was all the rage in the ‘90s before a hidden track called “Kuwait City” that thinly disguises a Gulf War protest in the form of a Beach Boys parody.

Anything would be a letdown after Goodbye Jumbo, but even now, just as then, Bang!’s effect is more like a thud. Many years later it would be rereleased with a new cover, and combined the two halves of “Give It All Away” into one track while lopping off “Kuwait City” from the end, but didn’t do much to change the fact that there’s not enough substance holding up the songs.

World Party Bang! (1993)—2½

World Party 2: Goodbye Jumbo

Karl Wallinger spent a couple of years improving his instrumental dexterity, polishing his recording skills and upgrading his equipment. Along the way, he recorded the excellent songs that make up Goodbye Jumbo, the second album by World Party.

He’s still technically a one-man band, but was wise enough to get real drummers to play real parts, and better guitarists that surpassed his limitations as an upside-down leftie. Nonetheless, “Is It Too Late?” sounds very much like an enhanced demo, from the programmed percussion to the slow addition and reduction of instruments. “Way Down Now” was the first single, an uptempo rocker fading out with “woo-hoo” accents that will remind anyone of “Sympathy For The Devil”. It’s another fade-in for the catchy “When The Rainbow Comes”, similar in feel to “Put The Message In The Box”, which is even better constructed with a well-designed bridge. “Ain’t Gonna Come Till I’m Ready” is a dark R&B piece with a falsetto lead that doesn’t explain the title at all. Even more impressive is “And I Fell Back Alone”, an exquisite heartbreaker for acoustic guitar, piano and fake strings.

The second half of the album is just as solid, at first, anyway. “Take It Up” is in a now-familiar tempo, full of layered keyboard parts and featuring a clever nod to “Here Comes The Sun” at the end of the instrumental break. “God On My Side” manages to cram influences from Beatles to Stones and Dylan into a single track, and doing a good job of fitting the vocals together. Though hinted at on side one, “Show Me To The Top” is a full-fledged Prince tribute, from the drums and synth effects to the sped-up vocal and spelling of “L-O-V-E”. (Interestingly, the liner notes list Prince’s former managers as World Party’s current managers.) A train rattles down the tracks towards a tantalizing snippet of a White Album-style strum, which pulls over on “Love Street”. This inscrutable gem builds from a lilting waltz to an urgent bridge, with those jungle synths from the last track, into a screaming guitar solo and an impeccably soft ending. “Sweet Soul Dream” is something of a trifle after all that setup, though it does feature Sinead O’Connor, again, then doing well with her second album. “Thank You World” crashes in for a noisy finale. (This was also the album’s third and least successful single, despite being available as a maxi-single with various unreleased tracks, including a note-for-note cover of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”.)

These days there are more blatant appropriators of psychedelic rock and funk, but Lenny Kravitz was just starting out. Goodbye Jumbo’s influences move seamlessly, but more reverent without stealing, mostly. It remains a solid album, and one of that year’s best.

World Party Goodbye Jumbo (1990)—4

World Party 1: Private Revolution

If Karl Wallinger had done nothing but play keyboards on “The Whole Of The Moon” by the Waterboys, he would still be respected around these parts. However, he learned fairly quickly that he wouldn’t be able to collaborate with Mike Scott on his own terms, so he recorded something of his own one-man band project called World Party, which turned into a real live Pinocchio when he had a worldwide hit.

“Ship Of Fools”—subtitled in some places as “Save Me From Tomorrow”, after the hook in the chorus—was an infectious surprise in the darkening winter months of 1986 to 1987, a strolling piano sub-boogie with a vocal that sounded like Jagger channeling Dylan. It was one of the better developed tracks on Private Revolution, which spilled his other obvious influence, that of the recently de-Revolutioned Prince. Drum machines had only progressed so far at that point, and that dated sound colors both the title track and “Making Love (To The World)”. The blatant homage is mostly out of the way with those, so the lengthy follow-up single “All Come True” delivers more mystery in only a few chords. “Dance Of The Hoppy Lads” is a brief instrumental before the smooth soul of “It Can Be Beautiful (Sometimes)”.

Dylan dominates side two, from the outright parody of “The Ballad Of The Little Man” to the straight cover of “All I Really Want To Do”. In between is the countryish “Hawaiian Island World”, notable now mostly for the debut backing vocals (and one scream) by one Sinead O’Connor. The song “World Party” likely came before the band had a name, with a chorus borrowed from the Beatles. Finally, “It’s All Mine” lopes through an ecological lament, but only if you’re paying attention to the lyrics.

Private Revolution would sound better today if it were produced better, but that’s assuming that more sophisticated instruments wouldn’t subtract from the charm. It would have been easy to expect this to be a one-hit wonder, and maybe he’s faded into the background, but Karl Wallinger would have a lot more to offer, in his own sweet time.

World Party Private Revolution (1986)—3½