Tragic City

Taylor Hollingsworth gets his first full-length off to a rip-roaring start. A vibrant mix of Sticky Fingers-era Rolling Stones and Pleased to Meet Me Replacements courses through the standout rave-ups, "Take the Money," "Little Queenie," "Duct Taped Heart," and "How Could You Be So Cold," that populate the album's opening half. You can almost hear the clink of cheap beer bottles and the smell of cigarettes on these barroom rockers, which instantly grab the listeners' attention. Hollingsworth, however, isn't able to maintain this red-hot momentum. His acoustic rendition of Jimmie Rodgers' "Gambling Barroom Blues" literally slows the pace down. And while it is full of bluesy New Orleans atmosphere, it lacks the sense of gravity to make it sound convincing. Part of the problem is Hollingsworth's voice. At its best, he sounds like a weaker-voiced Paul Westerberg or, as on a tune like "Head on Collision," Peter Perrett from the early U.K. pop-punk outfit the Only Ones. At his worst, Hollingsworth's nasally voice comes off as more grating than ingratiating. The other shortcoming that surfaces more prominently in the disc's second half is Hollingsworth's propensity for guitar histrionics. During album's first half, he displays more discipline with his guitar work. There is an appropriate looseness to his playing. While full of down 'n' dirty riffs, it also is nicely self-contained. But in the disc's second half, several songs are plagued with overly long, self-indulgent soloing. For example, the album's three closing songs ("In from the Storm," "One Stop Motel," and the "semi-hidden" track "You're Lost") are all sidetracked by flashy guitar work. These guitar pyrotechnics also lack the strong guitar personality displayed in the earlier songs. The second half, however, is not without its highlights. "Bonnie and Clyde" comes off as a solid, if somewhat slight, country-style outlaw tale, while the rocking "Heart Attack" gets punched up with a Jim Dickinson-esque horn arrangement, as well as referencing "Little Queenie" from earlier in the album. When Hollingsworth gets his rock & roll elements right, he can create impressive, memorable music, and Tragic City holds enough excellent material to suggest that this Birmingham, AL, native has a very promising future.