When
Alex Chilton re-emerged as a recording artist in the mid-'80s, he seemed perversely proud to upend his audience's expectations, delivering scruffy but emphatic R&B-influenced material rather than the visionary pop music he created in
Big Star. In many respects, 1995's
A Man Called Destruction found
Chilton following the same path as he did on
Feudalist Tarts and
High Priest with its no-frills production, live-in-the-studio attack, and set list that mixed idiosyncratic covers with quirky original tunes. But while his '80s work often sounded like the work of a man who was getting back on his feet as a musician,
A Man Called Destruction is thoroughly confident, the work of a man indulging his stylistic eccentricities and having a splendid time doing it.
Chilton cut
A Man Called Destruction at his old Memphis stomping grounds, Ardent Studios, with a band made up of old studio hands and frequent collaborators, and with
Alex at the helm they generate a great sense of groove, loosely tight in the great Southern manner rather than shambolic like
Like Flies on Sherbert.
Chilton's gutsy guitar playing is at the center of the arrangements, and his picking is angular but expressive, generating potent kicks at every turn. For the most part, the covers here outshine
Chilton's originals, especially a raucous take on
Chris Kenner's "Sick and Tired," a playful version of the
Jan & Dean chestnut "The New Girl in School" (co-written by
Brian Wilson), and the charmingly cheesy soul workout "What's Your Sign Girl." But the instrumental "Boplexity" generates the album's most exciting performance, with
Charles Hodges delivering a wild organ solo as he squares off against
Chilton's guitar, and the rollicking "You're Lookin' Good" and "Don't Stop" make it clear
Alex always knew how to rock.
A Man Called Destruction proved to be one of
Chilton's final solo efforts, and it's a shame he didn't try this again -- by this time, he was slowly but surely turning jamming in the studio into some sort of a ragged-but-right art form. [In 2017,
Omnivore Recordings brought out a remastered and expanded reissue of
A Man Called Destruction. In addition to seven bonus tracks -- outtakes and alternate versions from the same sessions, including a tossed-off but lovely version of "(I Don't Know Why) But I Do" -- the set includes a splendid liner essay by
Bob Mehr, and this edition sounds crisper and better detailed than the 1995
Ardent release.] ~ Mark Deming
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